I would agree with you. I do think that living outside of Europe, many do think about cities from the perspective of an outsider, certainly.
I will add this though, as I've had a number of comments on cities - the society and social structure of the city is very important in determining how the city would be built and what it would look like.
The presumption is that if a city looks like a medieval European city that all other factors mirror a medieval European city - and that may not be the case.
Not an argument to what you said at all Steffen, just an added point I wanted to make.

Many cities in the Americas, older native cities were not walled and it lead archaeologists and historians to make the inaccurate assumption that those ancient peoples were not warlike, which was wrong of course.
There is a lot that goes into a city. The mindset, culture and social structure of the people makes a big difference in how it is constructed. If the city is not a feudally controlled city, things related to walls may be a different story. A merchant collective, or a union of families... things other than a single ruling lord/family dynasty. Maybe it's a farmers collective, though they would likely not build large stone walls.
Just other things to think about.

I don't know anything about the Menzheim of The Dark Eye, so for this city everything I did was just arbitrary really.
And in that case your point would be well made.
But for a city like Haerlech - it has a history and culture that doesn't have anything to do with medieval Europe.
Okay... end of rambling.

edit - haha, yes, it looks so sad and flat without those shadows.