The problem is of course that if you are in contact with 2 cl you don't know whether the situation warrants pulling back to your fleet or leading them away from your fleet. They could be screening the bcf or the gf and you don't know.But...
I realise that I cannot have performance and missions in scouting as OTL, by just building a 36 kts, 3-5,000 ton ship without armor or heavy guns, but I can locate their scouts/screens, and then, as the situation warrants, lead them where I want them.
Doctrine doctrine doctrine."A crushingly decisive battle was fought between our scouting forces and those of the enemy, with honor and glory to be had on both sides, blah blah blah..." "On a side note, the main body was unable to make contact with the core of the enemy fleet, and some speculation is that the battle of the scouts may have had something to do with this sorry lack..."
Actually some theorists have proposed that type of strategy. If you beat their scouts and screens in every battle their battle line can be forced to stay in port or act inadaquately screened. If acting inadequately screened they can be ripped apart by torpedo attack.
It's a theory that wasn't uncommon at the time.
Not something I would reccomends as Germany opposing Britain. There's too many cruisers in the reserve even during ww1 for them to run out of fleet screens completely.
Post Dreadnought, Germany needs every 10,000+ ton ship to be equal to or greater than HMS Dreadnought herself, at least imo, and building ships that are as big as OTL pre dreadnoughts, and probably cost more than a pre dreadnought, that cannot fight like a dreadnought, weakens Germany's already numerically outnumbered battle line by one more ship. The thread title is what is causing the confusion I think, as folks seem to be reading it as asking for alternative battlecruisers, rather than alternatives to building battlecruisers.
Remember your unarmed scout is not gonna be free. It has engines bigger than a dreadnought and despite its small size probably weakens the German battle line as resources are invested in these scouts.
I actually think if you don't want battlecruisers and a super armoured cruiser/light battlecruiser is not to your liking either your best choice might be to roll the dice and go for an early scouting air craft carrier and accept that you are staying in port during rough seas.