There weren't many wide shots of the landing, but this video shows just how slowly the ship descended under flap control, why the landing burn was started so low compared to a Falcon 9, & why the final flip has to be as fast as possible. Not many people appreciated how slowly it would descend under fin control.
When it's horizontal, it's descending slowly. When it's vertical, it's rapidly accelerating down. They have to minimize the downward acceleration to minimize the fuel required for landing. The faster it can flip & get the engines pointing down, the less downward acceleration the engines have to make up for.
They're not just using the fins to reduce re-entry heating or to save on reaction control thrust, but to shorten the landing burn far beyond what a Falcon 9 could do. NASA spent years & lives trying to perfect lifting bodies that could fly with the smallest possible wings, but they were constrained by the need to land horizontally.
The starship design has managed to achieve enough drag to get the benefits of a lifting body yet save the additional mass of landing gear & larger wings by landing vertically. It makes one wonder if Elon himself came up with the fin design or if it was a group idea.
They'll keep optimizing the flip. By the time humans ride it, the flip will undoubtedly be faster & more terrifying than it already is.
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