[derefr]

War isn't like superhero/kaiju duels, though. Duels are generally about the opponent themselves — you can only win by disabling them. But a large part of war is about the logistics of moving soldiers and supplies around and through places; and so it can be critical (even war-winning) to deny your enemy the use of territory.

A "superhero that shoots fire" (i.e. a guy with a flamethrower) — or a rolling cloud of nerve gas — isn't there to actually harm anybody; it's there to be a thing your enemy sees and stays well clear of. It's an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_denial_weapon. The threat of it prevents your opponent from coming within range of it; and thereby locks them out of the area it threatens.

And, as it happens, a flamethrower is a much safer area-denial weapon than a cloud of nerve gas — as, whenever the enemy isn't around, you can immediately shut the flamethrower off, and use the area yourself.