I think the author has a point that a future world where Mars has been completely transformed by humanity will represent some form of loss. But it does seem awf

I think the author has a point that a future world where Mars has been completely transformed by humanity will represent some form of loss. But it does seem awfully low on the priorities list if it does turn out that Mars has no existing forms of life. Comparison to colonization on Earth does seem quite the stretch. It would be disappointing if Mars was home to some limited form of life and it all suffered the same bad fate as many Earth species. But everything is a tradeoff. That being said, I personally don't see Mars colonization (or whatever you want to call it) a realistic solution to humanity's problems.