Nightly pushups are made higher quality by a good military press session earlier in the day.
The pressing gets the triceps fatigued/activated (the two can be one and the same) causing you to feel the triceps firing during every pushup rep, you simply need have done enough pressing volume. I find 10 sets generally gets this feeling regardless of rep range as long as the whole amount was challenging to complete, 10×3, 10×5, 10×10 it’s all worked to this effect…different weights, same effort.
(This can even carry over to following days.)
In a way the pushups add some more stimuli, a bit more volume to the system, and due to the activation a bit more strength building.
When your muscles are in that state you ARE building strength.
The military press and the pushup complement each other nicely, combined they’re all the pressing you need.
And golly gosh golly neither involves sitting on your ass.