Landing it on the continental shelf in shallow water was probably more recoverable than falling from 60,000 ft. onto the ground. ISR concerns, ELINT, & SIGINT, coming off of the ballon were more valuable than the hardware anyway. We had a U-2 gathering (& interrupting) signals the entire time it was over instillations, as well as minimizing signals at bases as it passed over.
It is far more useful to know what the Chinese were interested in obtaining–what they thought our weakness or blind spot might be–by analyzing their output signals from the balloon than recovering the equipment anyway.
Can’t imagine, in any event, what information the balloon could collect that satellites & an office on the 4th story of a nearby building couldn’t intercept as well.
The Great Lakes downing was just because of PR pressure to “do something.”