Why Royal Navy opinion shifted toward tracer ammunition

Did the British avoid tracers because they distracted director crews?

That was one concern, along with revealing the ship at night, but wartime experience made tracer increasingly common because it aided aiming and affected attacking pilots.

Tracer could expose a firing ship's position at night and was initially considered a possible distraction to director crews. Experience showed that visible fire also helped aimers and imposed a strong psychological effect on incoming pilots. Night fighting therefore created a real tradeoff between concealment and the gun crew's ability to correct its fire. Adoption still required changes to ammunition production and fleet supply, so even a persuasive operational lesson took time to spread through a navy the size of Britain's.