Part of the problem is that, with the exception of Trumpeter (which has only been in business for a few years), these manufacturers have been around for a long time. There are plenty of exceptions, but in general a reputable manufacturer's products get better over time. A few of them (e.g., Tamiya) update their kits (some of them, at least) occasionally, but typically they leave the same kits on the market for decades - and the older ones just don't come up to the standards of the newer ones. It's not safe to generalize too much, but when you're dealing with the major manufacturers the newer kit usually is better than an older one representing the same vessel on the same scale.
For instance, Tamiya makes a Bismarck on 1/350 scale. The kit was released in the late 1970s, and came close to representing the state of the art at that time. Revell of Europe issued a 1/350 Bismarck a year or so ago, and it's generally agreed that it's superior to the Tamiya one in virtually every respect. Few people would assert that Revell kits are categorically superior to Tamiya ones, but in this particular case there's little room for doubt: if you want a 1/350 Bismarck, the Revell one is the one to buy. (It's also, I believe, usually cheaper than the Tamiya one. So price isn't a reliable barometer of quality either.)
On the other hand, Tamiya released a 1/700 Yamato in, if I remember correctly, the early 1970s - when the 1/700 "Waterline Series" consortium was just getting started. By the standards of that era it was a terrific kit, but, like the 1/350 Bismarck, it doesn't come up to 21st-century standards. But just a few years ago Tamiya issued a new version of the same ship, and this new kit is outstanding - almost unquestionably the 1/700 Yamato to buy.
Unfortunately the manufacturers, with few exceptions, are rather tight-lipped about this sort of thing. An innocent consumer putting down a vast amount of money for a Tamiya Bismarck, in its flashy new box, has no way of knowing that the contents came from a thirty-year-old mold. And it's quite possible that some of those old, 1970s-vintage Tamiya 1/700 Yamatos are still knocking around on the shelves of stores somewhere or other.
As Dreadnought suggested, it's an excellent idea to take a look at a website or two before spending money on a warship kit. For that matter, if you have a particular kit in mind and post a query about it in this Forum I suspect you'll get several knowledgeable comments on it within a day or two.
The bottom line is that there are a heckuvalot of excellent warship kits out there at the moment. Even if one restricts onesself to the "mainstream" plastic manufacturers, there's something out there for virtually everybody. And the world of resin kits offers just about every significant warship class from the First World War onward. This is a great time to be a warship modeler.
Good luck.