WW2 battleships look mighty. 
No doubt. They just fit badly as space-based warships...
Rearrange the weapon mount layout and turret models and you'll have a much, much, much better ship to present.
No.
The weapon configuration as is is far more efficient than practicely any ship made for FS I've seen, canon or non-canon. I've did tests and calculations with fire arcs, and the ship can focus 50-95% of it's total firepower at any point in space (rear being the lowest, broadsides the most effective).
You should try to do the same for some of the many ships considered to be awesome by you. I wonder how they would do in such a test.
I did use a different turret model before, but I fojnd I like this one better. It has to be big since the turrets themselves are supposed to uses ultra-thick armor.
Anyway, help me pick the front section layout guys. I'm kinda partial to the second one, as it follows the form of the hull more.