Interestingly, the Federal Republic of Aurora - established when a Federation colony system was whisked off to the Omega Octant in Y130, and joined by other 'missing systems' from Klingon and ISC space later on - were the first power in that Octant to develop the technology required to build gunboats (PFs) but chose not to, selling the tech to their Maesron allies instead.
In their case, the reason given had to do with the loss of life caused by an Andromedan attack on FRA space in the Y190s, in which the Andros made a point of targeting the Auroran carriers and swatting the fighter squadrons out of the skies. After this, the FRA Senate was unwilling to spend more on new types of attrition units, which (to them) were seen as a pointless waste of lives in the face of the Andromedan threat. So, while the Senate ordered more warship production, the Maesrons used the acquired tech to develop their own PFs, and try to learn how to best use them against both the Andromedans and the Souldra.
One thing to note about the Feds is that they have two things that their rivals don't have - larger carrier groups, and better heavy fighters (like the F-111), which they use as the core of the Federation 'Third Way'.
(So far, it's not clear whether or not the Aurorans went in a similar direction with their carrier groups - but if they did so, it would seem that it would be after Y204 - when the Androemdan threat had receded, and the Aurorans would be faced with having to deal with rivals within the Octant once again.)
Oh, and by the way - there are two other factions which built battleships, and each built more than one: the Iridani (who come from a cluster adjacent to the Omega Octant) and the M81 Galaxy Tholians (who built several battleships as the centrepieces of their fleets - at least until the Seltorian Rebellion broke out).