Turkey, Chile and the Philippines all have a substantially larger fleets than they ever could sustain realistically and historically
Hee hee. I'm amused that India is not included in the list.
When talking about maintenance I wasn´t referring to complete rebuilds only. What about modernizations every few years to keep AAA up to date for example? True, the rules don´t make it necessary but it seems realistic.
This is the case with the Columbo and Hyderabad class cruisers, which I'm "refitting" at about eight years of age, about half way through their expected service life. This is obviously a lot sooner than the 15 years our rules require.
A similar situation with the destroyers is to be expected, but the destroyers being retained won't reach their half-life until ~1930. I may opt for re-builds if the output's worthwhile.
I think the key here is smaller navy's that don't have huge factory outputs more or less need to save every ship they can and rebuilds are a cheaper option.
The flip side is, not every ship rebuilds well. I've simmed rebuilds of the Hyderabad class, and can get barely a knot's increase in speed and a 3x2 (rather than 6x1) configuration for the main guns. This doesn't seem worthwhile to me - but I can add to the AA suite and upgrade the torps with just a refit.
For me, at least, a consideration with some ships is service career. Quite a few of my older cruisers and destroyers have been through at least one battle, and that has an effect on the condition of the ship even after repairs are made. They'll see the breakers sooner than ships which haven't been damaged.
Finally - the smaller navies do need to make the best use of their resources and manpower. Keeping around old, slow, and small ships isn't always the smartest way to go about it.