> 21st century battlefields are very fast-paced and deadly and often asymmetric;
The current battlefield in Ukraine is anything but fast-paced, and this is the largest continental war we’ve had since May ‘45 (the War in Korea has some shots of having been bigger, but then only for one year or so, 1950).
As you say, that's just the current phase of the war. No stalemate or operational lull holds forever. Anyways, that doesn't affect the rest of my argument.