In a sense, Mars is interesting just because it's boring. As in, compared to the other planets besides Earth it's perhaps the most benign environment for human

In a sense, Mars is interesting just because it's boring. As in, compared to the other planets besides Earth it's perhaps the most benign environment for humans to possibly settle. Settling Venus is also possible, but it's less accessible due to the Earth-like gravity well, and it's easier to imagine humans living relatively comfortably and self-sufficiently in a Martian Hobbit hole than on giant zeppelins in the atmosphere of Venus. Venus is more mysterious simply because it's harder to see surface features under that atmosphere and the conditions on the surface are very strange and hard to imagine.