I think this actually undersells the economic disparity between human and robotic exploration, particularly when extrapolated out to the next couple of decades.

I think this actually undersells the economic disparity between human and robotic exploration, particularly when extrapolated out to the next couple of decades. Yes, robots today are cheaper, more resilient, and more capable than us, but they are about to become vastly more so on the timeline of a manned Mars mission. AI is happening right now. Roboticists have not been ignoring the wild successes of large language and vision models. The already thin arguments for human presence will sound even weaker in a decade or two when the robots already there are vastly more capable in every way than they already are.