Pontius,
Breaking my own rule,butt to respond.
Peenemunde was a special raid, as set out on the official RAF history site. It was, quoting the site, 'the only occasion in the second half of the war where the whole of Bomber Command attempted a precision raid by moonlight'. It was Pathfinder led, and employed a number of special tactics. Losses were 6.7%.
Area bombing was a totally different tactic, and the one employed in the vast majority of Bomber Command operations after 1941. You are right that an industrial target has many layers, the key is which layer area bombing centred on. There was official obfuscation at the time, and some downright untruths, but the records show clearly that the aiming points were the residential areas of the cities, not the industrial areas. The incendiary loads dropped were optimised to set densely packed housing alight, and were less effective against factories.
The primary objective was, to use Cherwell's phrase, to 'de-house' the industrial workforce. What it really meant was to kill so many of them that the survivors would not work. Destruction of factories was a by-product, and in any case was largely assigned to the USAAF after 1943.
Hope this helps
Best regards as ever,
Engines