How British-style cruisers would redirect US design

How would US cruiser design change if the Omaha resembled the Emerald class and the Pensacola resembled a British C-class cruiser?

US cruisers would likely retain twin turrets, gain protection, and develop from a more balanced cruiser rather than scout-cruiser baseline.

An Emerald-like Omaha would be a more convincing light cruiser and would worry British planners enough to encourage additional construction under the treaty system. A Pensacola derived from British C-class practice would favor eight guns in twin mounts and more protection instead of the historical move toward triple turrets and maximum gun count. That gives later American heavy cruisers a more balanced starting point for the missions they actually performed. The panel uses the counterfactual to distinguish a qualitative prestige race from a quantitative race in numbers. Better individual cruisers can provoke competitive design responses without producing the same crisis dynamics as a direct numerical buildup.