in philly it was more of a gentleman's agreement to not build anything taller than the statue of William Penn atop city hall, which lasted until one liberty came and, quite controversially, broke the rules.
For LA i think it was because of how earthquakes effect the basin area whereas the peninsula in San Fransisco was more solid, the LA basin is composed mostly of sediment and has been described as "a bowl of jelly" in earthquakes, L.A. City hall had to undergo massive retrofits to keep it up to code and the last major quake damaged one prewar highrise building in downtown beyond repair, and left another empty for decades.
As much as it sucks, L.A. had a practical reason to limit building height before technology allowed man to counteract nature, Philly on the other hand, had no reason to and a bunch of stuffy old men agreed to limit height
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