USS Galena after her armor failed

Did removing USS Galena's ineffective armor turn her into a useful unarmored cruiser?

Removing the armor helped, but the cruiser label remains doubtful and a more substantial improvement is preferred.

The viewer argues that Galena's large gunports and inadequate armor made her unusually vulnerable, with the armor itself producing additional fragments. Removing it improved speed and left a more useful unarmored vessel. The reply accepts the direction of the argument but hesitates to call the result a cruiser. The preference is to improve the ship further rather than stop at removing the armor and call the result a cruiser.