A great 10-minute video from Oh the Urbanity!, explaining that density isn’t arbitrary. People want to build more housing where there’s demand.
What a lot of housing skeptics misunderstand, intentionally or not, is that density is not arbitrary. Density follows demand.
Nobody tries to build skyscrapers in small towns or rural areas, because there's no reason to. Land is abundant, and there's room for most people to live in standalone homes if they want. At most you might see townhouses, or small apartments for seniors or small families who don't want as much space.
But the flip side of this is that if you live in a city and people are trying to build denser buildings near you, there's a reason. There's demand to live there that's not met by the current lower densities. The reality that density follows demand contrasts with the pervasive view of infill housing development as this arbitrary thing done to communities.
Generally speaking, in a geographically central location with easy access to lots of jobs, you’ll have more people wanting to live there. Land prices will be higher. Allowing more height and density means that the cost of land per square foot of floor space will be lower.