I don’t think prototype testing really reflects on the market either way. Starship is going to enable new markets, with designs that are currently unlaunchable and incredibly inexpensive tonnage to orbit.
Heavy was deprecated because advancements with F9 made it nearly as capable, and only certain mission profiles require the extra cores. The engineering to adapt F9 into Heavy was onerous enough to make upgraded Heavy not worthwhile for few payloads.
I don’t think prototype testing really reflects on the market either way. Starship is going to enable new markets, with designs that are currently unlaunchable and incredibly inexpensive tonnage to orbit.
Heavy was deprecated because advancements with F9 made it nearly as capable, and only certain mission profiles require the extra cores. The engineering to adapt F9 into Heavy was onerous enough to make upgraded Heavy not worthwhile for few payloads.