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But then why not cover the adjacent area with crops and sod the vertical farm, solar panels, grow lamps, wiring, and all the costs, construction time, maintenance work, etc. and just have a farm?

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Instead of an adjacent area, the panels could be in an arid desert. Meanwhile, the vertical farm is in a population center and using less water

That is equivalent to saying "vertical farming is cost-effective where energy is free and land is scarce and expensive".

Oddly enough, precisely the opposite circumstance describes most farming.

Because good land itself might just be more expensive to purchase and maintain than all of those systems in a highly dense footprint?

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