Treasury limits kept British carrier conversions austere

Why were Akagi and Kaga extensively refitted while Courageous and Glorious were not?

British Treasury funding constrained the scale of reconstruction, leaving the Royal Navy with more austere conversions.

The difference between the Japanese and British conversions is not simply that one navy understood carriers and the other did not. Extensive reconstruction required money that the British Treasury did not provide for Courageous and Glorious. In hindsight, converting Admiral-class or G3 hulls with adequate funding might have produced stronger carriers. The answer places carrier quality inside fiscal policy: navies can identify useful improvements yet still operate ships shaped by the budget that legislators will support.