I think they stand out because Japan could not win when they were fought. We had everything we needed during them, although during Peleliu and Iwo, fast attack carriers left the scene early reducing the numbers and types of aircraft suited for close support. Likely because of the impending Okinawa op and the fact that the defenses would have to be reduced by the artilleryman, engineer and finally the infantryman. I guess they were too stupid to see that had they remained, the Japanese would have been ‘easily’ rooted out by their actions.
Iwo Jima was shelled by air and naval bombardment for three days covering the entire island and yet we still had 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead. It’s hard to imagine that a single ant could have survived the bombardment but the Japanese did and fought like hell for 35 days.