And if we followed the Russian engineering philosophy, we'd have just three deaths and would still be using the Apollo system. In hind sight, maybe that would have been a better choice. OTOH, then we'd be laughing at our space craft having less computing power than a modern refrigerator.
In fact I do hardly understand a philosophy behind a shuttle. Too much wasted payload is a craft itself. It only have sence for a Star Wars lovers who likes an idea of a space ship like that. Russian method of building a space stations to live there for years and resupply that with numerous cheaper spaceflights is more effective. With their limited finances they could afford a space program of a way larger scale back when.