Once you have an emergency all that matters is getting out of the situation safely, the aircraft is the insurance company's problem. I've never had to ditch, but after reading about it and listening to podcasts from people who've done it successfully, I think it makes more sense to ditch close to shore than to try to land in soft sand, unless you knew that beach and knew the surface was hard enough to land on without flipping the plane over. There's also the danger to pedestrians to consider, you could easily kill someone on the beach trying to put it down.