Generally, a good spacecraft has the least amount of mass possible on fuel/engines as compared to payload (the useful part of a mission) which is why center of mass either migrates upward or stays mostly neutral.
This is especially the case with things like landers and geostationary satellites, where you want as much fuel as you can afford for station keeping, to keep the satellite operable for as long as possible.
Half of Nova-C's mass was fuel (~900kg), payload was 100kg. Starship's payload is ~100t, dry mass is ~150-200t but fuel mass is ~1200t.
"The Apollo's "lunar module descent engine" weighs a mere 180 KG vs the approx. 4200 KG of the rest of the craft (dry mass). Just the fuel for the descent is then roughly 8000 KG."