As a fan of beautiful nautical design, I have never cared much for 20th Century onward British warship design from a aesthetic perspective (with a few exceptions)
I always felt that about Japanese warship designs leading up to and during WWII...with few exceptions (Such as the Yamato class, and specific instances of battleships/cruisers/destroyers) they always appeared somewhat homely to me.
German warships in WWII I found to be beautiful, but too few. I think the Germans built them like Swiss watches.
The Soviets had some butt-ugly vessels, though I thought the Kirov class was gorgeous. They are also making some nice looking vessels today. This opinion parallels their aviation industry...their planes are far better looking these days.
As for American vessels, The Iowa class beats all. Then, I love the Virginia class cruisers...and nearly any cruiser built by the US Navy after 1942 looks beautiful. I didn’t care for the look of the Knox frigates, but liked the look of the Spruance class, and love the Arleigh Burkes! (There is something about them that reminds me of a fast ship of sail...perhaps the rake of the mast...:) The Oliver Hazard Perry’s...eh. Almost all American carriers look boss to me, but some of the newer class of littoral vessels have a good looking one (Freedom class) and a weird one (Independence class) and both are problematic from a performance perspective. The San Antonio Class is just plain ugly. The homeliest of all has to be the Zumwalt class, but I look at those as concept ships, even though there may end up being three of them.
Form doesn’t always follow function, but I believe in the old rule of thumb about planes: If it looks good, it probably flies good!
You forgot the Italians. Never mind that the Kirov (and especially Molotov) were based on Italian design philosophy...