When compared to other Enterprise classes such as the Constitution, Excelsior, and Galaxy, we’ve seen a surprisingly small number of Ambassador class ships, both in terms of unique vessels and on-screen appearances. What might account for the relative dearth of these ships?
For a long time I’ve concluded that nothing went wrong with the Ambassador Class.
It was just easier to keep updating and cranking out Excelsior & Miranda Class ships. So Ambassador production slowly petered out. By the time of TNG, most of them were still in service… but there were way fewer of them.
Now, the Narendra Class variant… that design was cursed.