You're right, I was a fool.🙂
This has probably been recommended before, but one of the things that would solve a lot of these AI building problems is having a list of 'preset' ships representing real-life ship classes (Yamato-class, Queen Elizabeth-class, Town-class, etc) that players can then build upon if they wish, or simply use (or fight against) as-is.
(Just because I want to design my own ship doesn't mean I want to go through the trouble of designing my opponent's ship too.)