> overpowering

As Iran shows, you don't need overpowering. You need to hit the enemy where it hurts them, like strategic infrastructure.

> "swarms" ... (the obsession with them is also weird - if you had thousands of assets in the air, the last thing you'd do is put them all close together)

On the contrary, a swarm allows you to overwhelm the enemy air defences, which allows you to hit targets, including those same air defences, without having to disable them first. Cf. Iran destroying a THAAD radar.