Apollo 6 was a partial failure due to engine failure of the 2nd stage.

Also they blew up tons of F1 engines during testing. They never got the POGO issues fixed.

I really don't understand why people make these arguments. SpaceX is explicitly saying they dont want to spend money proving everything works the first time.

Because in the end the statement that started this whole discussion is still true: we're not there yet, the starship keeps exploding. I have deep respect for SpaceX but what they "explicitly say" doesn't change facts.

We may get there eventually, perhaps even with starship, but the fact remains that in 60 years after Apollo we don't have a comparable heavy rocket.

Way to shift the goalposts

I don't see how this is the case. We still have neither an F-1 capable engine not a Saturn V capable ticket, both statements are correct.

Wanting F-1 capable engine is like wanting exact recreation of combat performance of F-4. No one involved has cared about that for more than 40 years. Just people who don't understand the tradeoffs so they judge stuff based on silly heuristics.

'test-driven development'