Robotic probes are about as emotionally and intellectually satisfying as watching a GCI movie or a Corona beer commercial made at a beach vs actually being there.
If we send up thousands of probes we might find that there are livable conditions for humans under the ice of some of the icy moons or in the clouds above Venus. Then we can start sending people to those places where they have a chance of survival.
True, but if emotional and intellectual satisfaction are the only selling points to using humans, then it’s entertainment, which shouldn’t need to be funded by the taxpayers.