> We can judge the value humanity places on astronomy by looking at how much money is allocated for it.

That is a very naive viewpoint.

Yes, I am sure astronomers believe in their hearts that whey they are doing is supremely important and valuable. But astronomers should also understand selection bias. Astronomers are inherently biased to believe highly of the value of what they are doing, or they would not be astronomers.

Elon Musk and some investors don't represent humanity. Hell I doubt even SpaceX values Starlink all that much, most employees I know say that it exists mostly as a filler payload during launches.

The fact that they are doing tens of dedicated launches solely for Starlink says otherwise.

Starlink is looking to be a multi-billion dollar business by itself.

Whose whole point was a sustainable funding source for SpaceX R&D. In this sense, it's fair for SpaceX employees to consider it "filler payload", given that they have their sights set on Mars. And everyone else, astronomers included, will benefit from drastically cheaper access to space.