Mike, I'm listening, You'll appreciate this!!...
You missed a point. Even though the total wasted power is the same, the way you propose configuring the two linear regulators requires that U2 have the same max unregulated input voltage spec as U1. By cascading the two regulators, it reduces the demand on U2, making many more chips available... Besides, the TS has already decided that U1 should be a switcher (because that is where the bulk of the dissipation takes place) , and U2 can be a linear (with a 5V input) because the dissipation there is only (5-3.3)*0.1 = 170mW.
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