After the war, Phillips Watts publicly made the claim that had small tube boilers and geared turbines been used for the Queen Elizabeth’s, then they would have been able to achieve speeds of 28.5 knots. The Admiralty Board asked d’Eyncourt for comment and he agreed with Watts assessment.
What effect on future operations and designs would a 28.5kt Queen Elizabeth class have?
It is worth also noting that the OTL QE's came out over 2,000 tons overweight.