Every picture from Venus' surface, ever (2021)

I assume because they knew they’d literally get only one shot. So imaging more of the nearby surface was the best use of that opportunity, for doing science.

The Soviets had already landed a probe on Mars, which sent back the top few lines of a picture of the sky and then stopped scanning down, and died. So they must have not wanted a repeat of that disappointment!

Probably, on Venus, the bandwidth and sensor tech just weren’t enough for it to be possible to get more pixels in the time available? So they concentrated the effort on the nearest rocks

Sadly that does make the photos visually sort of unimpressive, unlike all the splendid panoramic views America’s Viking probes took of Mars. (Where the lander wasn’t being pressure cooked and acid-etched in 20 minutes)