As someone who witnessed the launch of STS-110 from that very causeway, I can confirm that you get a better view on Youtube but you cannot FEEL the launch. When you're only a matter of a few miles away you genuinely do feel the wall of warm air hit you as the SRBs burst into life. The countdown can also be very tense - the launch was nearly scrubbed because one of Atlantis' onboard computers needed rebooting with only a few minutes of launch window left.

This has probably done nothing but rub it in people's faces.