I don’t think the launch permits have anything to do with this company at all. They would’ve just purchased a ride on another company’s rocket (likely Space X or ULA). They probably assumed they could figure out reentry when they got to that point in the mission. I can’t say for sure, but they very well may even have multiple plans for getting the capsule back, and this was just the first one they tried.

it would be interesting to see these graphs on the same y-axis scale to show the relative time differences between latitudes.

Sources of entertainment have - by definition - more viewers and attention than Exxon’s office building.