I think these were two different things. It was Starship that reentered (successfully) at a lower angle of attack, but it was the Super Heavy Booster that was supposed to attempt the chopsticks landing.
Iirc on the way up they announced the tower was go for catch. Divert order was given on the way back down. Really curious to find out what the reason was because it seemed like a picture perfect splash down. No random fires, no (visible) component explosions. Maybe a range issue like a boat or something?
Yep, may not be related, I'm just going off the speculation + a picture from one of everydayastronaut's cameras showing a rather bent looking antenna structure on the top of the tower.
Yeah Elon described it as a "harder" and "faster" landing. So maybe things were a little outside of the safe parameters, necessitating the change in plans. I wonder if we'll get to find out what that was.
It was, in fact, the booster ("coming in harder and faster"). The upper stage's orientation was being tested (nose down until final flip) as was the removal of 2,100 heat shield tiles.
