This may seem silly, but the landing time is part of the problem with NASA. Public relations. They are doing absolutely the coolest, most sophisticated landing in the history of the space program at 1:30am EST. It would been so easy to adjust the time at launch, in flight, etc... for the most publicity.
Next, they couldn’t build cameras (web camera size) and transmitters in the stages of the landing modules? They said they might not know for hours if they are successful. Imagine how cool it would be if they recorded and sent landing videos of the stages after the heat sink is blown away.
I read that two of the orbital platforms we have around Mars are in position and will be transmitting low-res, low-speed real time images from orbit.
I don’t think any of us plebes will see them, but they should have confirmation very quickly.
Gee, if only YOU had been on the engineering teams!!!
Or, can we otherwise assume that many cost and engineering factors resulted in whatever “might have been” not being selected for “what MUST be”.