If mankind is to move off this planet and survive beyond the planets accommodation, we have to move into space and learn how to live there. Like most such endeavors, there will be many follies and failures. Just like the Roanoke Colony was a failure, man will see failure and wasted effort in space. But, that's how we learn.
The alternative is to not try. For people that think like me, that is a much bigger waste and failure. How would a person ever know if they can swim across the pool if they, forever, make excuses not to go in the water??
My point is that the thought experiment could be done on the ground, it didn’t need to go to space to experiment. It worked to make the tang. Nothing was gained by doing it in space. If that was the most important and urgent experiment then the whole program was a playground for incompetents.