Trip-planning context
The route is a pace decision.
Start the Romantic Road with a pace decision: whether you want to move north to south, which walled towns deserve a night, and how much time remains after each transfer.
Use the focused route guide to decide whether a sequence of walled towns matches the way you want to travel. The overnight rhythm matters as much as the individual sights.
The towns are not interchangeable.
Wurzburg, Rothenburg, Dinkelsbuhl, Nordlingen, Augsburg, and Fussen each ask for a different amount of time. Some deserve an overnight; others are better as a stop between bases.
Use the Romantic Road guide for the first town-by-town decisions, then compare the resulting route with the number of nights you actually have.
Neuschwanstein sits at the end.
The southern end around Fussen and Neuschwanstein is a sequencing question, not just a photo stop. It should not collapse the whole route into one castle expectation.
Plan the southern end with the route guide, allowing for the castle time slot, the approach from your overnight base and the next departure. Keep the rest of the route in view when choosing that final stop.