I forget sometimes that acronyms can cause confusion. PE is Photo Etch... sorry. Photo-etch parts are becoming the "go to" for added detail. One can spend a ton of money on "Upscale" kits full of several or one sheet of Photo-etch parts.
Again, don't have a clue on the piping in stern area. Good point made, at this scale, one just can't get it all in.. oh, I suppose one really could if you want to start counting the rivets. Trumpeter probably has protacol for where to "draw the line" when it comes to detail, where it starts to become unreasonable without driving the price of the kit way beyond the average modelers means. I defer to a company called TechnoArt. Located in Latvia of all places. They produce, in my books, some of the best, highly detailed kits on the market. If you check the archives on this Forum, I posted the build of the USS Indianapolis at close to 1/200 scale. The kit cost me close to $1,000 US. I saw it, I had to have it.. end of story. It is now a center piece in my collection. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of detail, from resin cast hull, to bronze and brass castings, to several photo-etch sheets, decals, rigging. It was a massive project and really got me going into build WW2 US Navy Warships. I built a destroyer from another TechnoArt kit, it was cheaper in price, but smaller.. still with outstanding detail. Now, I have discovered Trumpeter, who in my opinion come very close to the quality and detail level as TechnoArt and at a much cheaper price point, one that I can afford. Nothing wrong with plastic, not these days. Ok, I can go on and on with this subject.
Again, I do appreciate the time and willingness to investigate to get a question answered. After all, that is a huge part of this forum. Best regards, Dennis