What I never understood is why the unloading process is so needlessly complicated. After splash down, why not attach a cable and hoist the capsule onto a ship for unloading?

Instead, it's always this long spectacle of multiple back-and-forth boat trips, inflation and attachment of rafts and 'porches', and several helicoptor trips to a ship.

Just build a recovery ship that can park right over the capsule and hoist it on deck.