Not really?

Making space flight cheaper and more reliable certainly helps advance human knowledge in my opinion.

Spaceflight wouldn't be there in the first place if astronomical observations didn't help generations of scientists (including Kepler, Newton and Oberth) evolve the concepts of astrodynamics. Astronomy is far from having given up all its secrets - many of which will surely be applied in everyday life some time in the future. Besides, nobody would be complaining if this was about making spaceflight cheaper. This is about commercial exploitation of space by destroying a scientific resource. As others mentioned, there are easier ways to bring internet to rural areas - if only there was social resolve. This is more about worldwide internet controlled by a few big corporations.

Powered flight wouldn't be there if not for generations of people playing with kites. That doesn't mean we should abolish airports because they take the prime spots for kiting.