Could naval treaties have lasted as building limits?

Were the interwar naval treaties doomed to fail, or could they have worked?

A system that allowed continuing construction within agreed limits might have been more durable than periods of prohibition followed by renewed building races.

Continuous construction within agreed limits is proposed as an alternative to long building holidays. The argument is that navies could have organized their future fleets around stable limits on categories and construction. Repeated pauses instead created frustration and demand for rapid expansion when restrictions eased. Whether the alternative would have kept governments inside the treaty system remains a counterfactual judgment.