I could easily see it dominating the naval scene if they were produced as singles instead of the collectible box sets.
See I've never thought that was a big issue. Of all the collectible games, this is one where an uneven distribution makes sense. There really were only four
Iowas ever made. There were only ever two
Bismarcks. However, there were 175
Fletchers made and fifteen
Narviks completed. Likewise, the number of battles involving three of either of the above destroyer classes are a lot more common than a battle involving any of the battleships listed.
For it to dominate the naval scene it would need to have more detail. There's really no difference between most of the capital ships. They have extended range, torpedo defense, a marginal flagship ability, and lots of dice. You could very easily replace one ship with its' counterpart from another and it wouldn't really matter. Speed is another ridiculously simplified statement. The Iowas were capable of 33 knots, the South Dakotas and Washingtons were 27-knot ships. In battle, those six knots were important. How about in A&A:WAS? The ships have identical speeds.
Furthermore, the game is quite inaccurate and, IMO, poorly researched. The errors made with various ships, namely the Repulse/Renown switch, are rather annoying. But what makes it worse are the degrees to which they go to try and make fleets interesting. The Sovetskii Soyuz, not only one of the highest point ships at 67 (the Iowa is only rated to a 68), is given Torpedo Defense 1. This is the same bonus given to the Richelieu. The Italian Pugliese system was marginal, at best, whereas the Richelieu probably had the best system of any battleship in WWII. Similarly, the KGVs had an absolutely horrendous system: shallow, very thin, and with an unfortuante tendency to funnel explosions
into the ship. It too is awarded a Torpedo Defense of 1. And don't even get me started about the Main Guns and generic armor ratings.
The system is a simplistic system, at its best and most generous. The game play does not encourage particularly authentic tactics, merely a "naval" recreation of the first thirty seconds of a dodgeball game. The miniatures look nice, which is what, at least in Chicago, most of the people I've talked to buy them for. I haven't seen a league play it at my FLGS in the last two years, and there used to be a very robust group.
It would take a lot more than non-collectibles for it to be the dominant seapower game. For me, I'll stick with AH's Midway for double-blind, GQ3, and Avalanche Press, all supplemented with my A&A:WAS ships.