The 35,000-ton ceiling removed designs of roughly 46,500 to 48,500 tons and relieved rivals facing an expensive British challenge. The criticism here falls on the construction holiday rather than the agreed fleet ratios. A small, regular replacement allowance could have kept yards, designers, propulsion technology, and armour development moving while each new ship displaced an old one. Stopping capital-ship construction made navies fixate on inherited fleets, modify existing ships, and later pursue abrupt workarounds when they realized that their design experience had fallen behind. Low-rate construction would have redirected rivalry into incremental technology rather than storing pressure for a later displacement and armament race.
Chapter · 59:37-1:12:36
How the Washington Treaty interrupted capital-ship development
The treaty cancelled the oversized G3 and N3 programs, while a total building holiday also froze design experience and encouraged later powers to stretch old ships and treaty definitions.