Do we know what the expected loss rate is lol

Look it’s like the Georgian navy just expansion means post rank is Lieutenant level, not Captain. So so many of them stuck on half-pay

"up or out but we keep making more ships so everybody goes up"

It's like how during the Civil War every West Point graduate got to be at least a colonel.

and if you're a shameless hack who wants even higher promotions, like Lee, you defect to the South.

Lee would have had two stars in the Union army, but I don't think he defected at the prospect of four. (Davis's addition of full general and lieutenant general ranks was also clearly correct; so many fucking major generals in the Union army)

Though Davis also just stuck with terrible generals for way too long out of respect for seniority, so that probably is the better analogy to Starfleet.

there were plenty of contemporaries, including in his family, calling him out as a careerist hack for defecting to the south, but I'm not familiar enough with his biography to talk about all his motivations, obviously nothing has a single cause.

I assume it's like 18th-19th century England. Admirals of the blue/white/red and all.