Is this bad or
better than expected?
Better. Quite a bit better.
If I understood correctly, the apogee of the orbit was twice as much as a TMI.
Keep in mind, this was a Block III/IV FH, and they limited thrust to reduce Max Q pressure.
The next heavies, which will be all Block V, which using full performance likely would be able to throw another Roadster to Jupiter or Saturn. Or two roadsters to Mars (with the same type of recovery).
But this was a burn to depletion. Zero fuel reserve. Typical missions require a fuel reserve as a safety margin in case of under performance.
Musk stated FH can throw payloads directly to Pluto, without gravity assists. Probably a much smaller payload (say under 500kg), but the farther away the payload destination, the total delta V required climbs a lot, which is amazing that a 100% RP1 rocket can do that. At some point the payload is too far out (say outside the solar system) you might end up with zero or negative payload (can't do the mission at all).
Plus there's the possibility of landing all 3 cores in 3xASDS on a purely parabolic trajectory which would add a bit more performance (no boostback, just a longer re-entry for the core to avoid getting too hot, ASDS catches the side boosters closer, the center core way out).
This launch also allocated some fuel for the core to do a boostback, otherwise ASDS would be much further out.
In rocketry, even a few more seconds of burn can make a significant difference. 30 seconds more a huge difference.
