York as a cut-price County

HMS York's silhouette looks like a visibly reduced County rather than a clean-sheet cruiser. The ship retained the conventional aft turret even though an all-forward, G3-like arrangement could have concentrated the battery more efficiently. A genuinely rethought version would have required triple eight-inch turrets, rather than the same twin mountings on a smaller hull. Despite reservations about some features, that alternative would at least have matched the logic of the weight-saving exercise. Reducing cost or displacement without revisiting the basic architecture can preserve the parent design's compromises.