TLDR: The concrete on the launchpad was damaged...
He really wrecked goodwill, people's lungs, parked cars, local windows, and his launchpad. Super smart!
"Still, despite Starship exploding, the launch has been mostly hailed by experts and fans as a success. Above all, it's been framed as a necessary "learning experience," in the words of former NASA official Daniel Dumbacher, speaking to The New York Times."
Separately
Environmental engineers and advocates are concerned the ash- and sand-like particulate matter could hurt people’s respiratory health, and could irreparably harm endangered species in the area.
Separately
Because they are still gathering information, the FAA and the Texas regional office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were not able to answer questions yet about any environmental impacts of the Thursday launch. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
However, the FAA told CNBC via e-mail that the explosion activated something called an “anomaly response plan,” which is part of a 2022 Programmatic Environmental Assessment completed by the company along with state and federal agencies, and that SpaceX has additional “environmental mitigations” they must complete before launching again. The plan “was triggered by debris entering adjacent properties,” the FAA noted.
The Center for Biological Diversity attorney, Jared Margolis, believes the FAA requirements will be minimal and easy for the company to fulfill, but not ultimately effective in safeguarding local residents’ wellbeing and endangered species.
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/24/spacex-starship-explosion-sp...
(No disagreement on SpaceX having "really wrecked" their launchpad, though. They also "really wrecked" their giant rocket. It's almost as if they expected failure and wanted to collect data on the failure modes.)
Was there some specific reason for the rush beyond "ha ha funny date"? _If_ they did have some sort of solution almost ready to go, seems perplexing not to wait for it.