>> Apollo had a significantly higher accepted risk.

Apollo would never risk the astronauts lives like NASA is doing:

"Artemis II is not safe to fly" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47582043

Apollo 2 to 6 were Uncrewed Tests

Apollo 10 was a dress rehearsal for the Moon landing, with the Lunar Module flying to within 9 miles of the lunar surface. including having the lunar module descent to within 15 kilometers of the lunar surface but the crew did not attempt a landing.

Artemis is testing a new heat shield for the first time, with humans on board, that has only been validated by computer models, and almost failed catastrophically in Artemis I.

The difference between then and now, is that now you have a commission of public servants and then you had Harvey Allen and Wernher von Braun.