content: There was no other option for this mission. The orbit they needed to get this payload to meant not having enough fuel leftover to do a boost back burn on the 1st stage (bringing it back in the direction of the launch site) in addition to the other burns needed for the landing. So, after 1st stage engine shutdown and separation, the stage continued on it's path ballistically.  They used cold-gas thrusters to flip it so it was would be heading back in engines first. They did a short re-entry burn to slow it a bit, and then a landing burn. It's actually impressive they got as close as they did given the options here. The barge was somewhere around 668km out in the Atlantic. They need to get barge landings to work because they won't always have the option to bring it back to land. All launches go out over water. If it's from the Cape, they go out over the Atlantic. If it's from Vandenberg, then it's the Pacific. Eventually SpaceX will have a launch site in south Texas and then it'll be out over the Gulf. Missions that require high orbits leave less fuel for the 1st stage landings. In those cases, sea landings are the only option. Space is hard. No one that knows what is actually involved, even a little bit, will think them incompetent. This is an incredibly hard thing to do. They never expected this one to work.