That would have made perfect sense, and that's what an American general may very well have done.
Putin's ultimate problem is that--as I noted--he hyped up
his Russia as the successor to the power and authority of the USSR. That led him to believe his military had the capabilities of the USSR, such as undertaking complex, interchangeable operations on multiple fronts. He failed to realize that the Russian Army has regressed to a pre-World War II state. I would go so far as to say it's a World War 1 army with faster tanks, drones, and trucks in place of horses.
Compare and contrast the Russian invasion of the Ukraine with the Russian invasion of East Prussia during World War I. The German Army was much more sophisticated re: technology and command in comparison to the Russians, but were outnumbered roughly five-to-one (note the Ukrainians currently outnumber(ed) the Russians deployed). The Russians advanced along multiple axes of advance with three armies; however, their command-and-control was terrible, and their communications security was nonexistent. This enabled the Germans to defeat the Russians in detail; crushing two field armies and sending the third out of Prussia.
This map is pretty illustrative of the Russian approach (apologies for the watermarks, but it illustrates the multiple (blue) Russian advances.
You could also compare it to the contemporary Austro-Hungarian invasion of the (smaller) Kingdom of Serbia, undertaken for
roughly similar motives as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Austrians repeatedly attempted to destroy the smaller Serbian Army, and even managed to capture Belgrade, but they ultimately ran into a wall which cost them
thousands upon
thousands of men. It was a legendary military disaster, and, as I said, very evocative of the Ukraine campaign (and failed for many of the same reasons).
who even makes that comparison
