Any reason to make planes and fly them?

[Pecan]

It's still keyhole'd to say "on the way up". You keep adding conditions to your original statement after the fact...

Please re-read my original post, to which you objected:

Apart from the fun there are exactly TWO reasons to build planes (in atmosphere and with stock parts) - i) horizontal flight capability makes it easier to land wherever you want to, ii) lift from wings means it is possible to take-off with TWR<1.

PLANES are not at all more efficient than rockets, JETS are more efficient than rockets.

PLANES are less efficient than VTVL jets, because they have all that wing/gear mass and drag.

It specifically says landing is an advantage of planes. No ifs, buts or additions; landing is an advantage of planes, coming from their wings. Even if you can't, MJ can happily land a VTVL at KSC, if not on the runway, for 98% recovery. Taking the 'coming back down' out of consideration, since I've already conceeded that, a VTVL will always, in all cases, be more mass-efficient because they do not have to overcome the mass and drag of wings, etc. A plane will only be more cost-efficient if the 2% extra recovery value from a runway landing pays for all that extra stuff, which I don't believe it does.

I await your counter-example.