That is a different approach, but I don't think you've demonstrated why it's better. Seems like that approach forces you to introduce a new scope for every resource, which might otherwise be unnecessary:

    using (var resource1 = acquire() {
        using (var resource2 = acquire()) {
            using (var resource3 = acquire()) {
                // use resources here..
            }
        }
    }

Compared to:

    var resource1 = acquire();
    defer { release(resource1); }
    var resource2 = acquire();
    defer { release(resource2); }
    var resource3 = acquire();
    defer { release(resource3); }
    // use resources here

Of course if you want the extra scopes (for whatever reason), you can still do that with defer, you're just not forced to.