Leander flexibility and postwar Type designations

Why did the Leander class and other Cold War designs miss the final top ten?

Leanders nearly made it because of their design flexibility, but choosing among variants and reducing a much longer list kept them out.

The absence of many Cold War ships reflects the difficulty of reducing a much longer list, not a blanket rejection of postwar design. The Leander class appeared in the expanded selection because its design offered options beyond the way every ship was ultimately used. Choosing between the original and broad-beam variants also proved difficult. A later classification discussion places the Leanders within the improved Type 12 family even though their class name remained much better known.