If you decide to play the game with stealth in mind, I think you'll find the game gives you some creative options.
In this video I throw a brick to get a guard to investigate the hallway where he can spot me and I can lead him into a boobytrap.
Here, I am coming up to an enemy with an MP40 who are very dangerous. You can easily die in a shoot out. To lower risk, I throw a brick to get him to move and ensure he wont turn around randomly while idling.
You can use dead or knocked out guards to your advantage. Here, I throw a body to draw a guard farther away from another guard so I can take him out. With a suppressed pistol and the extra distance between him and the other guard, I can ensure he wont be alerted if I take him out quick. My mistake was doing this next to a torch. If he did get a shot off, it would almost certainly hit.
If you can attract a guard around a corner, you should be close enough to knock him out without firing and without him getting a shot off which alerts anyone nearby.