It only took that long because MGS was aerobraking into orbit and wasn't designed to survive the stress of lower atmosphere turbulence, so only used the uppermost layer of the atmosphere for braking. If your going to land, obviously you get to use all the atmosphere and also can use parachutes. Something a problem braking into orbit can't do.

Surface probes do direct descent trajectories. There is no extended series of repeated braking passes. You do it in one go.