This query is so generalized that I have trouble coming up with a good answer, but I'll try.
The biggest practitioner of the "fit the box" policy always was Revell (though Lindberg and Aurora subscribed to it from time to time as well). I think it's fairly safe to say that, at least prior to the late 1960s, Revell ship kits generally represented the state of the art as it existed at the time. In modern terms that means that some of the old Revell ship kits are real dinosaurs. Somebody ought to pass a law to stop them from selling that old Iowa-class battleship, and the other fifties-vintage kits (Fletcher-class destroyer, Midway-class carrier, and Baltimore-class heavy cruiser) aren't much better. But in the late fifties Revell ships started approaching a reasonable definition of scale accuracy. The ones that appeared in the late fifties and very early sixties have reasonably accurate basic shapes, though the level of detail doesn't come close to what modern modelers expect. The Forrestal-class carrier, the attack transport, and the seaplane tender fall in that category. (The carrier has been updated several times, with different armament and aircraft.) So do the two Coast Guard vessels, the Treasury-class cutter and Wind-class icebreaker.
In the mid-sixties Revell started producing warship kits that, though they certainly show their age, hold up reasonably well today. Lots of nice models have been based on the Revell Arizona (the bigger one). I've always liked the Buckley-class destroyer escort and the Forrest Sherman-class destroyer, which have detail that's really remarkable for their age. The angle-deck Essex-class carrier was regarded as a masterpiece in its day, but now seems like a bit of a dud; there are some significant problems with its hull that would be a big challenge to fix. The four-stack destroyer is an old favorite - despite the awful blunder somebody committed in engraving "planking" on the maindeck. (Those ships had steel decks.) And the old cruiser Olympia is one of the more intricate warship kits ever. Any of those kits is, in my opinion, worth the modeler's serious attenton. They'd take some work (all the guns on the DE kit, for instance, cry out for replacement), but they could be made into handsome, detailed models. Gold Medal Models makes photo-etched detail parts for several of them.
In the late sixties Revell products in general started to slide downhill in quality, and the warships were no exception. The North Carolina, to my notion, is pretty awful, as are most of the British and German subjects. (The Bismarck isn't bad, but better, more recent kits do a far better job with her.)
I'm sure I've omitted some, but those are the ones that stick in my memory. Hope this helps a little. I'm sure other Forum members will want to comment.