> Lumping them all together feels like we're giving out participation trophies.

Like this?: https://kstp.com/kstpImages/repository/2021-07/richard-brans...

I honestly don't think it's something bad to praise when only a handful of organizations have ever done it. [0] Thousands of people have climbed Everest, but it is still a commendable achievement.

> Blue Origin has been running for 20 years and the best we have from them is flights that were accomplished in the Cold War?

Plenty of other nation-states have been working on spaceflight longer than that and accomplished less.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_spaceflights#Sum...