That is the exhaust from the turbo pump which powers the engine. basically a bit of the fuel and liquid oxygen is burnt in a turbine to power the main pump that pumps the fuel and oxygen for the engine.

“the actual landing process is virtually identical, and only one of them has succeded at it.”

And as has been mentioned by others they will probably still use the barges for launches where they have less of a fuel margin, also potentially the Falcon Heavy centre core might be recovered a lot further down range.

was a means to an end! it is all very well spacex saying we soft landed it on the ocean within 10 meters of the target, but visually if you are trying to persuade someone to let you land it on land then it looks much better if you put a barge out there and say look while it might have landed too hard to survive every…