You are comparing two different things, occupying a lightly defended city, and taking an enemy stronghold that happens to be built out of a city. The author do

You are comparing two different things, occupying a lightly defended city, and taking an enemy stronghold that happens to be built out of a city. The author does leave out the most traditional way of taking a city in face of opposition: starving it to submission. I think a fundamental blind spot in the article is that it doesn't explain why US forces employ high explosives so much more than other armies