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That’s all fine and good but if old established cities—which by definition are desirable else they wouldn’t be so established—just cannot change like you’re describing, then they’re doomed no matter what. Never said it’s simple, just stating a fact, and even if some people don’t like it then they have to choose what they value more. Seems like most of these cities just refuse to choose, which is a choice in itself, and then default to the status quo.

Personally if you don’t want to change the physical form of the city too much, the least disruptive approach is to build a lot of efficient transit towards the outskirts. It’s what Tokyo does and it scales to 40m people mostly living in low rise homes, no out of place towers necessary.