JSB: refurbishing turrets to improve elevation was done by both the British and Italians. Their answer to the problem was to lower the floor of the turret to allow the guns to pivot further and thus increase the elevation and range. The British also introduced a 'super' shell to increase the range of their 15".
Heuhen: each country that built CDS to your style had island chains to defend at short range from their ports (Norway, Sweden, Finland & Thailand). They did not require blue water ships. KHT pointed out in an earlier post that each country that might build a CDS would have different requirements in both size and gunpower. The Dutch would want a blue water ship that could be used in both the North Sea and the Indies. Whereas Ecuador would require a ship big enough to defend the Galapagos turtles.
Seriously the number of countries available to have CDS built for them is small. You have the Scandinavian countries, Poland, Portugal, the South American countries without battleships already and a coast to defend, China, Thailand. Most of the rest of the world are still colonies of the major powers. I've left out Spain, Greece and Turkey as they had ships of this size or bigger already.
It is the country that is paying for the CDS that will define the situational requirements for each ship. I see a CDS as a reduced battleship, something between cruiser and battleship, which is exactly what the Washington and London Treaties tried to keep off the oceans.
Building a ship of CDS size between 1920-1930 at 10,000 tons (designed +/- 30%) will give ships like those designs already entered here.
Heuhen if you are going to design a CDS for here. Don't design one for Norway or other Scandinavian country. Do one for China, Holland, Venezuela. Something that takes you outside your comfort zone. Stipulate the country of origin, the country its for, and the situational requirements you see for a ship of the end user.
I know you draw excellent AU/PD designs (love your hulls, not so sold on your superstructures) so you should come up with something much more than one of my horrible kitbashes. Go for it!