Battleships were far from limited. They had a proven track record of being able to sink other ships and could bombard the shore at a fair distance. The Aircraft Carrier proved it was better able to sink other ships, but nothing beat a battleship pounding the shore. The last Battleships were retired in the 1990’s, after doing shore bombardment in every conflict up through Desert Storm. But it became more cost effective and accurate to use missiles so they were finally retired. The same way satellite photographs forced the retirement of the SR-71.
I would say that battleships were extremely limited for what they were designed for. Actually, they had a very poor track record. Since the emergence of HMS Dreadnought (which is where a modern battleship starts) in 1906 and until WW2, there was basically just a single noteworthy battleship engagement, i.e., Battle of Jutland in 1916. And in that engagement, torpedo boats basically already showed how useless battleships can be in their primary role. WW2 then finally sealed their fate as one of the most useless and expensive weapons ever.
To be relegated to shore bombardment role is like going from a king to a bagger. Not to mention it is a role that can be (and also was) done just as effectively by much cheaper cruisers, since shore bombardment is basically a suppressive fire rather than anything that would actually cause any physically damage to well dug in defenders.
Anyway, I think we went completely off topic now. 😃
Some things might seem off topic, but often circle back in a strangely logical way.
I think the Bizmark/Hood engagement was pretty significant. And our greatest ships have a history of shore bombardment that has been quite effective and necessary. Have you read the Marine song lyrics lately? You know those shores of Tripoli? USS Constitution and her sister ships bombarded the shore and were instrumental in the success of that engagement. The Star Spangled Banner was written about a ship bombardment of the shore. The area where the Battleships shone was the size and range of their guns, unmatched by anything prior to missiles except aircraft. So shore bombardment was not something they were reduced to, it was part of their purpose from the beginning. The bigger the gun the further out and the larger the shell. And a good team could get pretty accurate at the right distance.
But you are right that does stray from the Death Star. It didn’t need to be very accurate since it could destroy an entire planet. And even its version of shore bombardment, which we saw twice in Rogue One, didn’t need to be that accurate. Except it was. Direct hit on Jedda City and direct hit on the communications tower on Scarif. And in ROTJ, direct hits on several rebel ships. So again, we find the parallels and see that even for such an all powerful weapon, it can be toned down for lesser uses. Still, the rebels destroyed the first one and the second one because they can destroy planets. While under construction is an ideal time as it is more vulnerable. And in Palpatine’s arrogance, he has them finish the weapon, but not the shields. If that would have even stopped a ship from flying inside it. Why worry about finding a tiny exhaust port when you can just fly in and destroy it directly. Palpatine counted on his legion on the forest moon to keep his only protection safe. Oopsie.