City Dog: On Why Our Pooches Don't Need Backyards

Living in the city, it can be a rare thing to have a backyard. Most of us lack even a small patch of grass and spend our time taking our pups on several daily walks.
Of course we all gather together to lament and collectively dream of the time where we might have that elusive backyard where we can just open the door and our pups will frolic away into the grass, all without us even having to put on shoes (or a bathrobe!).

After spending 8+ years with the daily walk routine, we finally got lucky and since we bought our new home we earned our very mini-city yard.
While we have more deck space than proper yard, we do have a "grazing" area of grass in the back, two long gangways along the side of our house for the pups to run, and a larger grass yard is in our gated front area.
We were excited to get the pups out in their new yard to watch them frolic. Only to realize, there is no frolicking and they just do a lot of this:

Perplexed by the yard, Mr. B decides to just sit in it.

While we've been dreaming of this day ever since we've had the pups, even though we have the yard we've continued to take them on the daily walks. And after trying a little experiment of mainly staying in the yard, and now seeing it both ways, this is why we've realized pups don't really need backyards:

Walks as a Way to Maintain Training:

Even though we've had Miss M for 8 years, and Mr. B for 5 years, we've realized how important it is to be consistent with their training. We have lapsed a bit in the chaos of selling our home and moving, and especially as we we've been testing out our new yard. We've realized without our structure and routine the pups are beginning to push the limits and they aren't listening as much. We've now gone back to our daily walks as a set time where we can practice our training and maintain the consistency.

Increasing Exposure and Decreasing Boredom:

Our daily walk routine has been good for exposing the pups to all types of situations. Even if we do walk a similar route, each walk is different with sights and smells and people. We know many of you have seen the videos like this one and while all dogs are different, I think it has helped our pups succeed at these types of crowded events because they are consistently going on walks and being exposed to new things.
In the short time when we were relying mainly on time in the yard, when we finally did take the pups on a walk they were amped up, lunging across both sides of the sidewalk to smell new things, and meeting people with unexplained over-enthusiasm. We've realized how important it is to keep our walking routine to keep our pups mentally stimulated.

Improving Health:

People are usually surprised to hear that Miss M is 10 and Mr. B is 11 years old. I think one of the reasons they seem so youthful is that we are always out walking. The walks give them the mental stimulation to keep their minds alert, while it's also a good low-impact exercise to keep them in shape without a lot of strain on their joints.
Our walks also help us keep an eye on the pups to notice any conditions as they might come up. This time set-aside daily lets us immediately recognize if there are any changes in their health or anything concerning from their dog poo.
In a strange turn of events, we found that Miss M is literally grazing on our lawn and has gone beyond eating grass to eating clods of dirt (?) which will eventually get vomited up. Our walks help us keep an eye on her and keep her moving so she doesn't have time to eat the greenery.

We know all dogs and situations are different, and this is what we found works best of us.
What does everyone else think, to what degree do dogs need yard space?

Also:
What we all think about but don't talk about.
What really happens on a daily walk
Polite.

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