Not saying we shouldn't do all those things on the moon that you mentioned--sadly we should have been doing it over the last 25 years. But all should be done in the context of how does it help us get to Mars. If we'are going to eventually be a spacefaring civilization we have to have some goals that are larger than repetitious baby steps.
No. It is the small steps that put the infrastructure in place to make the larger leaps in the future.