Volume is not the same as opportunity
The city term looks like the prize because the search volume is largest. But that volume includes everyone who already has a provider and is merely checking a name, plus every competitor bidding and optimizing for the same phrase.
A smaller suburb term where the searcher has genuinely chosen nobody converts at a far higher rate, and reaching page one takes a fraction of the effort.
Proximity is doing work in your favour
Local results weigh where the searcher is standing. A business physically near the growth ring has a structural advantage there that a competitor based across the metro cannot easily overcome.
That advantage is squandered by pointing all your effort at a citywide term where proximity helps nobody in particular.
Early positions fund the hard ones
Positions that produce enquiries within months generate revenue that can pay for the slower work on competitive terms.
Starting with the hardest target instead means spending a year with nothing to show, which is how most local SEO engagements get cancelled before they mature.