I tend to agree with keeping things a bit closer to home than wandering to Mars for what? The real reason should be to find other planets like ours, but Astronomers seem to feel anything within reach is a dead planet, so what is to be accomplished by going outside our short range area of near space and moon?
“so what is to be accomplished by going outside our short range area of near space and moon?”
The satisfying of the human thirst for knowledge, and sometimes knowledge for which we don’t, at the time, have a practical reason for.
Your question could be asked - why have all the long range telescopes we have on earth; very little practical application has been seen from our knowledge gained with them.
So, do you understand why humans will not rest with just was is practical, or with merely was has a practical application.
And, besides, in the search for “impractical” knowledge we have developed technology and products that floated into the practical sphere with great consequences sometimes.