Most of those shells were hits and devastated the ships upperworks. Many skipped across the water and still hit but from the side. Ballard's expedition revealed that the Bismarck's citadel was penetrated by only four shells. ( 2 from Prince of Wales/Hood and two from KGV/Rodney engagements)
On the other hand, Bismarck was completely crippled by a lone aerial torpedo (and they have smaller warheads than sub torpedoes).
Well put!
The worst part of BISMARCK's design was that she (unlike other vessels) had extreme difficulty being steered using the screws alone. This was glaringly obvious on her trials and ended up helping doom her in the end.