1. Nukes are not very reliable in the 6th World.
2. Nuking places tends to make them very unusable, and gives rise to new problems, like toxic shamans.
3. Anyone you miss is going to be PISSED and likely going to try and cause as much damage as possible. Tell me, what happens when the tribes and spirits fighting the mass driver suddenly have hordes of angry ghouls fighting with them?
4. It makes a wonderful bogeyman to keep other areas in line. Yes, you NEED Saeder-Krupp to come in and help with your country, because if you get too weak, the ghouls will eat you!
5. It makes a wonderful place to send people you need to disappear, but can't just kill for political or PR reasons.
6. It makes a wonderful dumping ground for failed medical experiments.
7. It makes a wonderful place to send 'undesirables'.
I had a point by point reply but i lost it in a page reload, so instead I'll just sum it up.
Your examples are only predicated on the Chicago incident, and that likely to be a very flawed example. We don't know where nuclear research has gone in the Setting, maybe they worked the bugs out by now (Pun intended). Regardless we do know there is no shortage of WMDs, sure maybe nukes won't work, that's fine. Between thor shot, super lasers, whatever the future equivalent of the MOAB is I don't care how deep they dig, the Militariries and even paramilitaries of world have ability to just make the parking lot at the bottom of a nice deep crater. It's fill in to a lovely crater lake in a couple decades.
To your last couple, we haven't lost pig farms, crocodile infested swamps, and lye pits. We never lacked for anything of those things, and really if you send some unlucky shmoe to Ghoul land as an example, what kind message are you sending? Killing the guy would been kinder, and everyone knows it. The next shmoe is gonna know he's got nothing to lose and it can go south in a hurry.
That is legitimately a point of tension in the setting. It works for and against Asamando in that everyone being grouped together means if they go too far, they will get hit. It's a cold war vibe in some ways. You could nuke Asamando, or use some other weapon of mass destruction, but that may not do what you hope. For one, the majority of Asamando is built underground. But more than just whether or not you'd do enough damage to the city itself, it would incite riots across the world. People try not to think about it, but a huge part of the reason ghouls aren't causing the apocalypse is because most of them do not want to destroy all humans, and many go out of their way to stop other infected from doing the same. Nuking Asamando would disintegrate the few groups who believe the Infected can find a way to live peacefully with metahumans, and an all-out shadow war would start. That's without even considering the PR nightmare that it would be for whatever corp went for it. Keep in mind Horizon backs Asamando in some fashion, and is using their PR machine to influence the masses and say that Asamando is a good place-- Not just for the infected, but for the rest of us too who don't want them around.
Look I get it, agreeing with Clockwork is never a good idea, but lets be clear about something, anyone who has studied infectious diseases knows, it's not a question of intention, Good will or happy thoughts. It's a question containment procedures, medical technology, hygiene controls. If it can't be checked the it's a very simple differential equation to figure out how long it takes for nodes of infection to spread out and complete the process.
But honestly all the is secondary Folks, to me it comes down to one thing:
Open your dark terrors to page 147:
"I could feel the blood of a child in me, and it
tasted far too good. Hints of innocence and untapped
potential swam like afternotes, and I shuddered
at the intellectual revulsion of my reflexive
pleasure. -Snip-
My body had already absorbed the blood.
I could feel it in my arms, the base of my
spine, my temples, throbbing soothingly. It felt
hot, flushing inside me, diluting and mingling
until that boy was suffused throughout my entire
being"
I don't want to give to much away as it's really one of my favorite pieces in the book, and think ever SR fan should read it.
But to point, they drink babies. THEY DRINK BABIES!!!!
It's not a little bit ok, it's not eh whatever. It's Babies. There is one option it's called War, Shadow-war, Total war, war of the roses, whatever kind of war you feel like calling it. It's cash bounties on ghoul ears, vampire fang, windigo pelts and every other variant of that virus, until there are none are left. No buts, no maybes it's war until that threat becomes a foot note in a medical journal about some kind a old awakened disease that got wiped out by the concerted effort of meta-humanity, like smallpox. Yes it will get ugly it's be war, what do you want? I don't doubt that many ghouls were good people that sad stuff happened to, bad things happen. I wish it was otherwise. But it's Meta-humanity or the baby drinkers too me it's that simple.
So yes I think that sections is Great Writing, but from my perspective when something enjoys eating kids, and there is only one solution, and there isn't any kind of humanitarian/political/ethical argument that's gonna change my mind on that subject. It's evolution and human nature. That's my feeling on it.