Talked to a fellow a few years ago who spent 5 years on Missouri--late 80s-early 90s. One thing he told me I thought interesting was that in bad weather that the escorts could not keep up with the BB. Also, Missouri had something like 15,000 miles worth of fuel at cruising speeds and was able I think to refuel it's escorts.
Jeez, small world. His name isn't Mike Borio, is it?
Your observations about the seaworthiness of the BBs vs the smaller escorts are correct as far as I know. But it's not really surprising, because the big ships were intended to be stable firing platforms. That would tend to make them more stable under all conditions.
I've seen Gulf War era photos of the Iowas refueling their escorts, but I can't seem to find them at the moment.