Starship didn't blow up on the launch pad. That's a success during development.

What the launch did do to the launch area is going to be an interesting story to follow.

The LabPadre rover cam at 8:33 was... exciting... large chunks of things falling everywhere.

I thought you meant from the exploded rocket. So I went to T +8.33 to find the falling debris at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbBeoReu12E

Then i re-read your comment...

When it exploded it was already very clear that stage separation had failed previously. So the disappointing part was 10-20 seconds before, the final explosion was inevitable, and well it was an explosion so it looked nice.

It surviving far enough to (hopefully) have a good amount of data on what might have caused the failure of the stage separation already with the first test flight is pretty great.

Because it achieved the primary objectives.

Because it was a test launch. The whole point is to get data so it doesn't do that when you launch real cargo.

Anything above getting it off the ground is considered a success for this test.

Getting into the air and having an obvious failure last that long -- meaning the automated abort didn't think it would escape the cleared area until then -- rather than make it explode immediately means a lot of data to make the next launch better.

It cleared launch pad which was the most important goal.

Getting it off the ground was the goal apparently

Apparently anything more than clearing the launch pad was a win. Musk's dead stare seems to disagree tho

Surreal. Cheering after a failure and forced smiles with shaky voices from moderators afterwards.

That is American positive thinking. Usually really good for motivation, but sometimes annoying and hard to read for us non-US people.

Those are people that have worked hard to get to this point. I don't fault them for being excited and having some fun with it. Feel like they earned it.

Indeed. that wasn't the issue. Issue was that the coverage of the launch was dominated by it. I love watching launches, find it relaxing, exciting and extremely thought provoking about our place in the cosmos. I also love watching live sport. but not at the same time.

Fan support is always important. It gives an extra boost to the players

SpaceX gives you an audio feed of onlookers who act like rabbid fans at a rock concert and only patches audio of the control room when they find it convenient. It's extremely annoying but you get used to it.