I have not a great admiration of Hitler, his SS having done some “job” in the village I born, missing my grand-father by luck. Well, not for them, he was a partisan.
However, again the some song, Hitler did all the bad things and his general were right. His general promised Hitler they could take Moscow. His general promised Hitler they could take Stalingrad. For Hitler, Stalingrad wasn’t in the Plan, but the roads to oil fields of Baku were.
The Germans were not far to take Stalingrad. When they failed, they failed to report to Hitler that they under-estimated the Russians. Hitler didn’t decide to burn Stalingrad; it was the tactic of the army. Hitler didn’t decide to send armoured division and tanks in a town. And when the battle was lost, the Hungarian, Rumanian, German and Italian division annihilated r routed, how the VI Army could have withdraw? Not petrol, no munitions, people dying every day of starvation, in the open plains of Russian, followed by the T34 and all the Siberian Units in skis.

Stalingrad was an important position on the Volga, a port. By this port, supplies were dispatched, coming from the Black Sea, plus few factories producing tanks (Red October). It was not a fight for symbol. Stalin showed to be a pragmatic man during the Revolution and WW2. He would have abandoned Stalingrad if needed, even Moscow.
For the same reasons, the German wanted Stalingrad. The thought a final push, few meters more and we can do it. Certainly the name of the town gave more resonances to the battle, but it wasn’t the main problem.

By the way, happily the Germans lost the war. Because with them, the Nazi did too.