How giant Hood successors might change naval treaties

Would a class of enormous Hood successors have prevented the interwar naval treaties?

Probably not; negotiators could create a limited super-battleship category and scale each navy's allowance around the ships already in service or construction.

This is a design-and-treaty counterfactual rather than a claim about the historical Washington settlement. Four much larger Admiral-class ships would probably have inspired American and Japanese equivalents before negotiators met. A treaty could then preserve a small separate allowance for super-battleships while applying ordinary ratios to the rest of each capital-ship fleet. Arms-control limits usually reflect the expensive capabilities already built or politically committed, rather than an abstract ideal established in isolation.