Would traveling across water to open new trade route to make more money, and just happening to stumble across fertile, richly-resourced new territory... be even a remotely good comparison to make with traveling across space for years, getting irradiated, landing on an inhospitable planet with no breathable air, nearly constant cold temperature, no timely resupply or assistance, and essentially no hope of return to home planet either for humans or for any valuable mined resources?

The value proposition just isn't there for colonization of Mars. If you want to say you did it for bragging rights, then just say it. Anything else is foolishness.