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.
In Japan after 1943 the USAAF did both. One raid on Tokyo killed more than Hiroshima and Kyoto was struck off the target map as not worth revisiting.