Why Santísima Trinidad did not become a first-rate model

What stopped Santísima Trinidad from becoming the model for later first-rate ships of the line?

Her repeated, incomplete modifications produced an incoherent and unpopular design rather than a stable pattern worth copying.

The ship began from an existing design and was repeatedly altered instead of being replaced by a clean new plan. Each change introduced another concept without fully resolving the previous one. Spanish officers themselves were not enthusiastic about the result. Santísima Trinidad therefore warns against cumulative redesign: exceptional size and fame do not make a vessel a sound production model.