Why did every country have a flying boat ?

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To expand a bit on points already made, flying boats were indispensable in the Pacific to provide long range heavy transport to small islands and atolls. These often had small airstrips but lacked sufficient land area to construct runways long enough to operate heavily loaded land-based aircraft with similar capacity as flying boats. Flying boats were a perfect match for use in/out of atolls with a large lagoon that protected the landing and take-off area from the open seas.

Although this is in "What If" territory, I believe the outcome of the Battle of Wake Island could have been much different if the USN either had a small dedicated fleet of Boeing 314 or Martin M130s based out of Hawaii in 1941 to service the outpost islands and atolls, or if the USN had acted more quickly to commandeer the Pan Am Clippers already in Hawaii in the days immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack. A few more men and critical materiel, like additional fire control equipment for coastal and antiaircraft artillery could have made the difference.
 
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