The steam engine was invented to remove water from coal mines, which was extracting coal to be used for heat. It was pretty darned new at that time, because the first versions operated by pulling a vacuum and experiments on strong partial vacuums had only just really begun not more than 100 years before then within English intellectual circles. It took quite some time and monumental efficient improvements after that for people to start employing coal-fired steam engines for tasks other than improving the production of coal itself.

You are exactly right that an entire network has to be solved together to open up space. This was also the case for the early industrial revolution. Because of this catch 22, right now we essentially have "space for space's sake".

That's also why space development will follow the pattern of a tipping point. As the pre-requisites aren't really there, investors don't have a good option to pour money into the venture. Once those building blocks start to get filled out, options open up, investment comes in, the building blocks themselves get cheaper, and things will progress faster than what people have imagined.

Humans have had, in total, a pitifully scant amount of interaction with extraterrestrial resources. Micro-gravity manufacturing isn't a thing yet, and we don't have the practical knowledge of how that will work. But the first step is lowering launch costs...