Disruption of Normalcy? High Rise v Low Rise Architecture

Recently, after visiting some of the contrasting cities of the world from west to east I certainly feel confused. On one side is fast developing cities of Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai etc. with certain amount of high rise architecture and on the other side are the developed cities of Europe with, decorative close to Earth architecture. The experience is also contrasting.

Though I liked the later one, there could be other perspectives.

There are some reasons for that biased liking. I don’t know, whether the urban planners consider these issues while planning the urban metropolis or not. But these common observations always affect my daily life.

1.) Virtual Distances
Recently, while looking for a place to rent in Kuala Lumpur I checked the walking distance to my office. Ofcourse using Google Maps. It showed me a 10 mins. walk to the office, and I can consider plus 2–3 mins. But it took me around 20 mins. to reach, not because of the traffic.
It was the ‘not calculated’ or ‘virtual time’ caused due to movement between floors from my 13th floor house to 12th floor office.

2.) Psychological Bias
This is the most frustrating happening as it creeps me out a lot. I can see the tall building I want to go right in front of my eyes, but the distance reduces slowly. The general satisfaction of reaching the desired destination is somehow lost in the process.
I believe a single tall building or a group of 2–3 can accentuate the axis of approach, but a cluster can destroy the same.