The most important role of exercise in weightloss is hormone regulation, not the calories burned. (As you correctly point out.)

Being less stressed and routinely expending large amounts of energy simply causes your body to run differently (because of the hormones produced and burned off), which in turn changes how it processes food and fat stores, what it craves, etc.

I think proper hormone regulation is far more sustainable than the calorie restrictions necessary to offset out-of-whack hormones.