Why brigs and snows were indispensable sailing warships

What was the most underrated but heavily used sailing-era warship type?

The brig or snow, because these small vessels performed essential routine duties but are overshadowed by frigates and larger warships.

Brigs and snows are nominated as valuable small warships that receive much less attention than frigates. A small, single-decked sailing warship is easily misidentified as a frigate when it could be a brig. The answer estimates that about three times as many brigs were built as frigates, without defining a particular fleet or date range for that comparison. Their numbers and frequent use make their relative absence from popular accounts misleading.