“the Orion splashdown in the offshore the U.S. Pacific coast needs to occur in daytime with optimal sea conditions
“
So now conditions must all be “optimal” and not merely within the limits of launch criteria?
All conditions must be optimal or kaboom ... What’s the point of sending the thing up if it cannot be recovered?
In this case, the launch criteria defines what optimal means.
In other words, you don’t want the NASA and Navy recovery teams to be battling unacceptable sea conditions.