NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

Yes I remember (I worked in that industry), but a few important caveats that you haven't mentioned:

* The cost was exorbitant

* The delivery estimates were hugely long and massively padded

* The precision was ensured through QA and acceptance testing processes that would easily be 10x the amount of cost/effort as the actual development was

* The amount of waste around the programs was incredible

Also add to that cost the cost of human lives that were expendable on the altar of the cutting edge of technology. The entire Apollo and Shuttle programs were a complete shit show when it comes to the safety of the crews. The acceptable safety margins are not even remotely comparable to today.