Two points:
a) SE referred to increasing, not reducing, the number of tiles. This is because putting them in layer 4 would be a lot of work, since any other tile that could overlap them would potentially need at least three different versions, since the repeating texture is 3x1. That's a lot of added labor for the level designer and a lot fewer tiles available to us. That's all nullified if they're in layer 5 or something, but then it becomes somewhat less clear what they're supposed to be.
b) I'm against an animated lamp, because we need to focus on this being a city, not a castle.