Korolev was a believer in using a "building block" approach to meeting mission objectives, using proven components when possible to minimize failure risk. He visualized the Soyuz family of orbiters as a design baseline to modify as required to meet unique mission requirements. Ironically, the LOK/LN approach resembles a 1961 NASA LOR proposal to use a Gemini capsule (referred to as a "Mercury-II" at the time) and an open-cockpit one-man lander to place a man on the moon, at an estimated cost of 1/20th of the proposed Apollo project.
(Open-cockpit, over the Moon. That would have been one helluva ride down! Somehow, I could see Pete Conrad with a grin on his face relishing the chance to give it a go. :-))
As it turned out, following the Gemini LOR path might have moved up a possible lunar landing date to December 1968. NASA (and von Braun) saw the Saturn/Apollo family of booster/capsules as the building blocks of the future (Apollo applications such as Skylab), however, and decided to follow that route. Ironically, NASA later decided to pull the plug on Apollo developments in favor of the reusable shuttle.
Which brings us, 35-some years later, to today's NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) which amazingly resembles an enlarged Apollo craft. What could we have accomplished in space by now if we had continued with Apollo?
Sorry, I started to answer a simple question and swerved into an essay. :-) Encyclopedia Astronautica is a good source on the history of space flight.