I feel like there are other efficiencies not considered in the article. Namely spoilage and portion size. I mean, you're not usually gonna need a bunch of tuna at once, so you don't want to have a huge can full of enough tuna for twenty people - but you also need it to be in a can big enough to manipulate. Also one with a big enough visible label space to actually put something legible on it.
Also, what about ease of retrieval? If the can's cylindrical, instead of cuboid, it's easier to retrieve every bit of a thick soup that doesn't drop out of the can.
