And then there is SpaceX, who are building their Starship thing willy-nilly, chucking things at he wall to see what sticks, and then going full-bore on the sticky stuff.
And they just stuck two guys on the ISS atop a rocket and recovered their booster intact at a time when NASA is paying the Russians for a ride.
I say "go with the sticky stuff" and am betting that SpaceX gets to the moon before SLS does.