...that there was consideration of target list...economic, military, leadership...the targets had their symbolic value. But to dismiss the civilian casualties as "just in the way" of the "larger picture" is to dismiss the full understanding of the participants that they were killing >people<. People not involved in their struggle. Strangers. Women. Children.
Purposefully.
THose buildings weren't buit to show off...any more than the hundreds of folks that climb mountains every year are doing it to show off. They do it because they can...or "because its there".
There are examples of such "excess" throughout history. Funny, though...we used to call them [link|http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/list.html|wonders].