Why there is no universal destroyer

No destroyer could be perfect for every navy. Italian Mediterranean priorities could favor speed and torpedoes, while other fleets needed different balances of guns and numbers. Treaty timing also mattered, because the Royal Navy began much of its program under tighter tonnage constraints while later American construction could move toward larger designs after the system weakened. Italian designers trying to preserve speed, torpedo power, and numbers had to sacrifice something, and gun armament bore much of that compromise. The resulting ship had to be judged against its navy's missions and resources rather than a single performance statistic.