The Tribals were the Royal Navy's last major treaty destroyers, built close to the limits before the approach of the Second World War made those restrictions less relevant. Their intended work included scouting, escort, and imperial presence missions normally assigned to light cruisers, which the Royal Navy did not have in sufficient numbers. Meeting that range of duties required enough capability to face many kinds of threat and made the ships expensive by destroyer standards. Much of the physical design was settled before the service had decided how to employ these unusually capable ships. Doctrine therefore had to catch up with the new destroyers.
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Why the Tribal class became back-pocket cruisers
The Tribal design is introduced as a treaty-era destroyer built to cover scouting, escort, and presence duties for which the Royal Navy lacked enough light cruisers.