Except for occasions when the bombers were used as areal artillery as in the Normandy campaign,the USAAF preferred to concentrate on military targets, in as much as it could. Yes I’m familiar with the Norden Bombsight and it’s pros and cons but despite that the Eighth none the less hit their targets more often then not. Owing to the technology of the times Norden Bombsight was only affective in daylight. It was offered for use to the RAF but the RAF declined. I think maybe you’re confusing ‘’carpet bombing’’ with what the RAF called ‘’area bombing’’ which was basically get near enough(or not) to the target and let fly the bomb bay doors and Fritz was getting sleep that night. Aside from the ‘heavies’’ the USSAF also employed two engine light bombers like the B-25 and the Martin Marauder to hit those targets which constituted the tactical aspect of the war as opposed to the strategic . You can’t deny the stats for Americans lost in the air war over Europe. The Eighth lost some 47,000, 26,000 actual KIA. One in three American airman was a casualty
There is no moral controversy over the use of bombers as “aerial artillery” against front-line troops. Only controversy about that was a matter of safety, or the lack thereof, involved in level bombing near your own troops. Because, again, of the tendency of the aircrews to want to believe the hype about their ability to hit targets with pinpoint accuracy. So on one occasion the bombers violated explicit orders against making their bombing run perpendicular to the German defensive line. If their bombing accuracy was as good as billed, that wouldn’t have been a problem, and we would never have heard about it. In reality, it was a problem, and it killed 100 American troops. Including, unfortunately, a bomber commander who was on the ground to observe, but who never had a chance to tell the flight leader what he thought of that caper.