This is a public signal of “we got something to Mach 5 and landed it in one piece - twice”.

That’s a pretty good indicator to people who want to get in on hypersonic technology development (I.e. defense contractors) that Stratolaunch is open for business.

Which is all that matters for military purpose. Air breathing hypersonic is useful because it offers even more flexibility in trajectories, but that doesn't mean that hypersonic gliders aren't useful.

> just a way to normalize using ballistic missiles, because they look slightly different and have a different name, without everyone freaking out?

Ballistic missiles have never been “not normalized”, they have been used routinely in pretty much every recent conflicts by at least one of the belligerent (usually the non-US side, since ballistic missiles are a way around the lack of airborn capabilities, but the US has its own arsenal: ATACMS are ballistic missiles).

The Oreshnik was famously falsely classified as an HGV in the first weeks by alternative media.

There is so much hype about "hypersonic" that I'm not sure if a true HGV even exists today. The gadget from the article looks like an attempt at it though.