Let’s talk cost effectiveness. ISS is the epitome of a “white elephant”. And it is not actually “in space”... hell, it’s not even in a stable orbit, which is why it needs the rocket boosts to keep it from falling down.
ISS was designed from the ground up to be a contractors’ gravy train. We could have given 1/100th of the money to someone like Burt Rutan and gotten a better product out of the deal.
Our sewers leak and our bridges topple while inflation eats the old folks food budget but hey! Think of the prestige and PR of spending hundreds of billions to sprout some seeds in space! and who can live without a centrifugal toilet?