Why build Revenges instead of more Queen Elizabeths?

Would Britain have been better off building more Queen Elizabeth-class ships instead of the Revenge class?

Not necessarily. The Revenges were more efficient new designs, while Queen Elizabeth's original inefficiencies happened to provide room for later major reconstruction.

Initial design efficiency and long-term modernization potential led to different judgments. Revenge used its displacement more tightly and made sense as a contemporary production choice. Queen Elizabeth carried roughly 900 tons associated with the late oil-fuel redesign, leaving space and margins that later rebuilds could exploit. That accidental flexibility helped Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, and Valiant accept extensive modernization, though the work was long and expensive. Later upgrade success does not prove that the older design was the better procurement decision at the outset.