Strategies for further building up navy as a naval power

I get the feeling that whenever I start the game as a nation which already has a decent number of heavy ships (battleships, carriers etc.) there is not much of a point on building any more and I tend to focus more on max torpedo destroyers as well as some light cruisers, especially those specialized in naval patrol (with maxed out airplane catapults and fast). This strategy has shown good results in the sense that the AI does not seem able to counteract it, plus I've noticed that AI ships are more prone to disengage and get more casualties this way though I might be wrong; still, I'm not sure if this is the most efficient way to do navy and maybe I might be still missing some aspects, and I'm just lucky that the AI is very stupid. So, in general, would you all say that maxed torpedoes are just that goated, or do you think I'm missing out on more effective strategies to deal with AI navies?