As I understand it, the reason for this is it would be much harder to get funding for a years-long mission up front. Ingenuity funding was not actually include

As I understand it, the reason for this is it would be much harder to get funding for a years-long mission up front. Ingenuity funding was not actually included in the original Mars 2020 program and there was huge internal opposition to it, due to potentially infringing on the science goals of the mission.