re: Old 1948 designs...
The restaging happened due to the fear of copyright issues with Collier's.
At the time von Braun did his work, solid state electronics did not exist, and vacuum tubes failed, so systems required man tending.
As for winged re-entry, the atmospheres of neither Earth nor Mars were not known that well at the time he worked. Perhaps very gradual re-entries may have allowed it.
As to how well it all might have finally worked, who knows?