Just to further clarify this…

They did the suborbital thing because they wanted to ensure it came in over the ocean.

If they went orbital, and anything went wrong, they’d have lost control of where it would deorbit and land, potentially putting people at risk.

So sure the rocket did not reach orbit.

No one with even a pinch of knowledge on the topic would ever try to dispute they could have if they wanted.

It was for our saftey that they didn’t.