cjdrover

Yeah, 8 km/s is way too high. A low energy Kerbin->Eve transfer has an optimal velocity of 4.8 km/s at atmospheric interface. FWIW, I have been playing with the Kerbin 365 rescale and routinely coming back to Kerbin at ~6 km/s with stock heatshields, the reentry corridor is just a lot tighter. (Side note, in some ways the rescale helps aerocapture because a shallow trajectory gives you a lot more time in atmosphere without dipping too low, and you have a deeper gravity well to work with. Stock scale is somewhat funky because any reasonable grazing path through the atmosphere takes you way too deep into the dense air...)

Don't feel too bad about; IRL air drag eventually takes almost everything in LEO down. In my career save I have zero qualms about removing any debris with an Ap below 70 km (after all, I could make each one the active vessel and then wait... but I have a life). You could always go back and get it with a claw-equipped ship later in your career...