I’m not sure that’s the case - spacex has done hundreds of successful flights in which their rockets (which indeed are just relative cheap fuel tanks with some very expensive engines underneath) came back to land. Not a lot of experience with this new model though, which is what the test flights are for.

From what I heard in previous articles (and what this one hints at as well) is that the FAA just doesn’t have the manpower to check the amount of flights current space agencies are aiming for.

But without an official response from the FAA, we won’t know.