A completed Malta class would be a very different long-term investment from an elderly converted carrier. A large hull entering service in the early 1950s could remain useful across successive replacement cycles, potentially carrying British power projection into the 1980s or 1990s. The Falklands War is raised as a conceivable late assignment, clearly as a counterfactual rather than a firm service forecast. The 'grandparent' logic is that a ship surviving its first replacement cycle can become exceptional enough to justify further investment and, eventually, preservation as a museum ship.
Notable Point · 41:41-42:51
Why a Malta-class carrier might have lasted into the Cold War
A Malta completed in the early 1950s might have remained useful long enough to reach the Falklands era and become a preservation candidate.