One advantage to anchoring off-shore rather than coming inside is the distance to hazards. If the ship is dragging sideways in the wind it takes about a mile to get the ship under control once the bridge gets wheelhouse control of the engine.
The problem of heaving anchor whilst dragging is the same, inside or outside, if the ship is outside there is going to be a lot more room to do it assuming sea room. In this case the ship was 20 miles out.
The main wild card factor outside is sea and swell, not safe to heave anchor if the seas are too high and risk of damage as was the case here. That requires moving before the weather gets bad which gets into the problems with decision making errors. I’ve had a couple chiefs become angry for leaving what looked to them like a perfectly good anchorage which were in fact dangerous, given the forecast.
The other advantage outside is the ship is free to leave anytime. If the ship is stuck inside it’s a problem without a pilot or permission from port control, coast guards etc.
Another thread here;