Hank,
You have dug into the "fine" details due to your 1/144 scale model. For 1/350 scale it gets to be more difficult to justify trying to add them. In 1/700 scale, unless you are someone like Jim Baumann, trying to add such small/fine details borders on insanity.
On ships, there are constant updates to correct problems or to upgrade for improvements. With general ship structure and power plant, BuShips issued ShipAlts that would be addressed during most times overhauls on availabilities. Then for Ordnance, including Fire Control, BuOrd issued OrdAlts. There were 1,000's of these issued for everything from replacing bad bearings to whole antennas. In Departure Reports, there would be a handful or two ShipAlts to be addressed which a description of what is to be done can be found, but there could be maybe a 100 OrdAlts ... and no real idea of what a specific OrdAlt was addressing. ShipAlts and OrdAlts continued into Post-WWII era and were updated until the ship was stricken.
An example of an interesting OrdAlt to appear during WWII, were the addition of handrails to the sides of some 5-in gun mounts. Specifically the mounts on the main deck more exposed to ocean waves where crewman could be washed overboard. The rails on the side of 51 and 55 mounts were common late in WWII.
I don't know for how long it was done on the 5-in gun shields, but I noticed on closeup overhead images of 5-in shields that there were TWO openings for both lefty and righty Gun Captain hatches. Which ever side wasn't used for the hatch, the other opening was plated over. I suspect that this practice was unnecessary after awhile, particularly when the 5-in gun shields were replaced with "light-weight" shields. I just have not tried to research this in detail. For modelers, except for the Hank's type
, such details are invisible.