Well, Nighthunter asked me to come up with a competing design, and while this isn't my best work, I do think it offers certain advantages over the competition. That said, from a strictly USN mindset, I do believe that the PG-52 design is superior. What I created ended up being more of a European style Colonial Aviso or Sloop.
My feelings in regards to the superior points of the design, are the advantages of mounting the main armament aft, as that alievates the need for superfiring forward, allowing the forward superstructure to be lower. I also used a cut down cruiser design opposed to a compacted DD one, though I'm left uncertain as to the actual advantages of that.
In speaking with Nighthunter, his main recommendation was to make the forecastle more DD-like, but my various attempts to do so didn't look right, so for the moment, I'm keeping the cruiser style bow. My feelings are a vessel of this sort is more apt to feature 6" guns like Erie, and I'd be tempted to use mounts like those on the Omaha class, (or "Omahahahahas" to quote Tiornu) The London Treaty stated the following:
Article 8
Subject to any special agreements which may submit them to limitation, the following vessels are exempt from limitation:
(a) Naval surface combatant vessels of 600 tons (610 metric tons) standard displacement and under;
(b) Naval surface combatant vessels exceeding 600 tons (610 metric tons), but not exceeding 2,000 tons (2,032 metric tons) standard displacement, provided they have none of the following characteristics:
(1) Mount a gun above 6.1 inch (155 mm) calibre;
(2) Mount more than four guns above 3 inch (76 mm) calibre;
(3) Are designed or fitted to launch torpedoes;
(4) Are designed for a speed greater than twenty knots.
I do however see the DP armament as being more useful overall, and during wartime, with additional AA armament fitted could be useful as AA vessels performing close AA protection for convoys, particuliarly on the Murmansk run. Their comparatively slow speed is a limiting factor, being slower than surfaced U-boats, but for close escort of mercantile vessels in the 8-12 kt range, they should be effective.