The time period covered by the worm originally represented a loss of greatness to NASA employees. It was an era of shrinking budgets, loss of focus, and unexpected loss of life (Challenger).

Because of that, the return to the meatball was intended as an internal morale boost, a look back to what NASA could be rather than what it was currently.

They do probably need to better balance public morale and internal morale, but it's a hard problem.