You can take the fuel hit; just think of it as structure weight.
The real question is, for commercial missions, who wants to put their $150 million satellite on a used rocket?
Musk can talk himself blue in the face about how reliable it is but business plans and insurers will make the decisions.
Eventually they may get used to it...SpaceX will have the burden of proof on them to show the reliability.
I just don’t see the point when the shuttle showed for years that a glide is a pretty reliable return strategy.
“The real question is, for commercial missions, who wants to put their $150 million satellite on a used rocket?”
And what insurance company will insure the payload in case of its loss?
This is a new path that Elon is trailblazing we will see just how economical it will be to have it land, be refurbed, and launched again.
Who wants to fly on a rocket that has never flown before? Even the car you buy new has been started. They will also get used to paying for the launch and not the whole vehicle pretty quick.