As I understand it, this was a test of a new (and ultimately much more capable) variant of the SM3. I believe only the first stage (booster) is shared with the previous version. With that much new development some issues are expected. Yes it would’ve been more confidence building to hit, but you learn from failure too. I wonder just how much detail on the cause will be made public.
Whatever the technicalities involved, I think the lefties back in Reagan’s day were protesting the general idea that we should be able to defend ourselves against sudden attack by Russian missiles, mocking the plan by calling it “Starwars” - and by extension the whole idea that Russia was somehow a threat to us that we had to be wary of - funny how things have flipped with the left now outraged about what the Russians supposedly did to this country during the election - but of course the aim of their rhetoric is still to embarrass a Republican president, so maybe not such a flip after all.....