There is a bigger safety margin for humans if you need to land in a relatively large area in the water somewhere with a larger range of acceptable velocities. I believe they considered a propulsive landing over land but decided against it to simplify the initial design.

10 years later though they have added this ability as a backup [0]. Which again shows how if human lives are on the line you want to favor redundancy and simplicity over flash.

0 - https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/10/dragon-propulsive-la...