Engines, no need to apologise, indeed quite the contrary given the erudite post which I must now attempt to respond to. It seems that our view of Harris and BC is identical until your identified scene shift in 1943. As regards Nuremberg, as others have already stated here, it was a tragedy for BC, but hardly typical so I would not regard it as a marker in the sense that you seem to.
You say that in 1944:
By that time, Bomber Command was quite capable of more accurate bombing
That, I'm afraid is where I must respectfully differ with you. Granted we had more aids by then, particularly for the Path Finders, but they could be and were compromised by the enemy. Other than greater numbers and better aircraft, Main Force had not changed to the degree that it could successfully switch targets from cities without even more innocent German cows going to the fairy dairy land. It was a case of "If it ain't bust don't fix it" in my view. It would have taken a seismic shift to daylight escorted bombing a la the USAAC to really improve bombing accuracy, and even then the cows were still vulnerable, just less so.
I suppose I must declare an interest here. I have no family connections to the RAF, let alone BC. Indeed my Dad was an RA LAA TA Bdr on Bofors who shot planes down for a living, or would have done if he had not become an early guest of the Mikado. I was however on Hastings, which any wartime aircrew, particularly Navs, would have felt quite at home in. We soldiered on with the old girls because we were promised "jam tomorrow" in the form of the AW681, which of course never happened. I remember the Sig informing the Captain as we approached the Hawaiian ADIZ that we were to report Tacan Gate Delta.
"Tell him we don't carry TACAN, Sig"
"He says to call established on the VOR 185 Radial"
"Negative VOR, Sig"
By this time Captain and Navigator were in conference.
"He wants to know what aid you will use, then"
"Tell him the Radio Range, Sig, and we'll call him established inbound on it."
And so it was as we went back and forth from Christmas Island. At the end of the detachment the captain was asked to sign a disclaimer, to the effect that he had now, or in the future, no further requirement for the Diamond Head Radio Range which had no notified users for years, until we came by, and was scheduled for demolition.
I only tell this rambling tale to try to bring home the very limited navigational capability of that aircraft in the 60s let alone the 40s. The Nav had a compass, ASI, API, OAT, Radio Compass, Drift Sight, Sun Gun and Gee. With those they did wonders and circumnavigated the globe. We could put SEAC packs into a jungle clearing smaller than a football pitch, but only by day, of course.
Harris performed the art of the possible. Others had clever ideas that indeed would have hit the German War Machine harder, if they had worked. Harris knew they wouldn't. "Tell them we'll stick to bombing cities, Sig."