'Better take a state intact than destroy it' will relate to don't mess with the locals' stuff if you don't need to. If you feel you need to, full speed ahead, but don't do it out of carelessness.
Master Sun says it excellently that one who knows himself but not the enemy will win some and lose some, one who knows neither will be destroyed, and one who knows both will be victorious. This is an excellent point to remember, and means that an officer really needs to study up on who the enemy is and how he thinks. Knowing himself and his own men is vital, but I feel like we often go in without trying to know the enemy.
His recommendations of odds remind me of how one should not seek to engage unless the odds are 3 to 1. He also has some underlying strategy in there (e.g. 'with two, split in half' aka flank).
His mention of defeating the enemy without fighting is applied in Iraq and Afghanistan in winning over the hearts and minds of the locals, and also in the sometimes-successful method of paying lower-level fighters to switch sides.
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