One of NASA’s problems was it adopted every project management fad that came out of academic MBA-land. Another problem and it compounded with the management fads was Congresscriiters\Senators using NASA as a jobs program. Glenn was among the worst at doing that.
It always was. Stennis had Huntsville and the rocket test center later named for him. LBJ got the manned space facility at Clear Lake. Nelson made sure Cape Canaveral was protected but it was Smather's baby. California got the JPL and later the Vandenberg launches; Ohio had the Lewis facility from the 50s (later stripping off his name and adding Glenn's) and later got what is now the Armstrong facilty.
There are political reasons for Canaveral winning out over Wallops (which is still in use, but didn't get the big launches). As well as the role politics played in the other job sites.
Of course, I don't know if they thought they were doing any favors in the mid-40s when they dropped a train load of Nazis in Alabama.