It's not irrelevant to me ... I've been a fan of NASA since I was little and clearly remember watching Apollo 11 in awe. I also remember wondering why the Russians could land people on the ground be we had to have a (dangerous) splash down. I guess what I'm saying is that "I'll cheer for all the participants" (and you left out India) but watching the U.S. legislature decimate NASA's funding in combination with NASA's lack of "big feature" projects leaves me wondering about their future.
As an aside, I used to have an E.P. with Kennedy's "New Ocean" speech on one side and key communications between Houston and the spacecraft on the other side as well as a set of cool charts showing the entire flight's trajectory.
Water splashdown is preferable because you don't have to deal with obstacles. Russia simply didn't have the blue-water navy to perform recovery, so they capitalized on their large landmass instead.
As an aside, I used to have an E.P. with Kennedy's "New Ocean" speech on one side and key communications between Houston and the spacecraft on the other side as well as a set of cool charts showing the entire flight's trajectory.