In relation to the original topic, a book I recent finished reading, The Rise of the Bomber, provided an interesting perspective on the RN choice / development of aircraft pre war. Basically the suggestion was gaining control of the FAA, including aircraft specifications, was actually a wasted opportunity because instead of developing useful types, or even continuing with reasonably successful adaptions of land based types, they developed the Skua, Roc and continued with the Swordfish and developed the Albacore and Barracuda.
Just imaging if they had simply adopted a navalised Hawker Henley as a Scout/Dive Bomber, with no pretence of being a fighter, and developed a Sea Hurricane prewar, or even better, a naval fighter, based on the Gloster F.5/34. Torpedo bomber, why not a variant of the Fulmar?