> Starship’s been in development for over two decades

What? The first version of something that looks anything like Starship was the ITS announced back in 2016, later "BFR" in 2017 and the stainless steel version (which is now flying) in December 2018.

Eight years is very reasonable for a fully reusable heavy lift system - something no one has built before.

The Space Shuttle took roughly 12.5 years from formal concept studies to its first flight (and 9 years from official program approval)