Why larger warships absorb upgrades more easily

Why could battleships accept wartime upgrades more readily than cruisers and destroyers?

Their larger hulls offered more weight, space, and stability margin, while smaller escorts often had to remove existing weapons before adding new systems.

A cruiser or destroyer can be excellent at a tightly defined task, but extra requirements quickly consume its available weight and space. Smaller hulls offer less reserve for radar, anti-aircraft guns, ammunition, and other wartime additions. Some destroyers had to remove torpedo launchers to accept heavier air-defence fits. Battleships carried more available topweight and internal volume, so they could absorb successive upgrades more readily. Apparent peacetime efficiency can become a wartime modernisation constraint.