I've thought about what a reasonable, achievable, less expensive
earth-to-orbit launch vehicle would look like.

I keep coming back to a two-stage-to-orbit vehicle that reuses both
stages. The first stage is a LOX/RP1 powered 'big cheap booster' -
not necessarily pressure fed - that flies straight up, releases the
second stage, and flies straight down to land at the launch site. The
second stage is a LOX/LH2 powered near-SSTO, shaped like an elongated
Soyuz reentry capsule, with a conventional heatshield on the bottom
and a expendable payload fairing on top. After deploying the payload,
the second stage also reenters and lands vertically at the launch
site.

For simplicity, both stages are VTVL. The only thing close to new
engineering is jettisoning or retracting the second stage exhaust
bells and closing the holes in the heatshield for reentry, then
opening the holes for the engines to fire through on landing.

The DC-X, Armadillo Aerospace, and the Japanese RVT vehicle have
demonstrated VTVL. The Shuttle has holes in it's heatshield that it
closes and opens (landing gear). Apollo had heatshields. Soyuz does
a good job on reentry. There are lots of engines available. If the
stages were only built for 10-20 reuses, we could keep fielding
improved versions, learning about SSTO and BDB in the process. It
would likely help the US launch industry regain market share. Many
rocket scientists have proposed some or all of this before.

So why is there no interest? Is the concept goofed up in some
non-obvious way? Am I missing something?

Tom