It's just that need seldom translates to ability or capacity. And lack of Starfleet starships is a persisting and fundamental part of the Trek universe, so ability to cope with that lack is guaranteed to take us by surprise.
Yet surprising mass production is exactly what Starfleet was up to before the Synths intervened. While half of UP was churning out Wallenbergs, perhaps the other half was creating Inquiries that were equally vital to the evacuation plan? Perhaps the capacity was lost not with the loss of UP alone, but with the loss of the ability to use Synth labor - yet it no longer mattered since the Fleet now had this generic starship available in the hundreds (in addition to the possibly more specialized Wallenbergs in the thousands)?
Riker boasts that the Zheng He is of the toughest, fastest and most powerful ship type in Starfleet ever. He never mentions newest...
Timo Saloniemi
Yet surprising mass production is exactly what Starfleet was up to before the Synths intervened. While half of UP was churning out Wallenbergs, perhaps the other half was creating Inquiries that were equally vital to the evacuation plan? Perhaps the capacity was lost not with the loss of UP alone, but with the loss of the ability to use Synth labor - yet it no longer mattered since the Fleet now had this generic starship available in the hundreds (in addition to the possibly more specialized Wallenbergs in the thousands)?
Riker boasts that the Zheng He is of the toughest, fastest and most powerful ship type in Starfleet ever. He never mentions newest...
Timo Saloniemi