For more insanity, it was initially suggested to be a return to launch site (RTLS) abort test. The mission commander shut that down in a hurry. I've always thought it was interesting that Buran could fly autonomously while the Shuttle couldn't.
2 failed, but part of why the Shuttle was grounded as soon as its ISS construction flights were done, despite there being no other way for America to independently take people to space was that it was found to be a death trap, with it being a miracle that more losses hadn't occurred.
Yes, however, one of those failures was due to a flaw that remained basically unsolved for the entirety of the shuttle program. That puts things in a different light, no?
And, I suspect (as your footnote mentions), they took risks that would not be considered/permitted today.
Modern "Human rated" space flights are very very different to the Gemini and Sputnik days.