I think what people don't get is that once you establish a human colony outside of earth ... why would you do that at the bottom of a gravity well ? Why dive into another big gravity well?

There are abundant resources in free space, from hydrogen gas to metals, carbon, oxygen that can be mined from passing asteroids (you could easily live in those asteroids while mining them) ... Energy is plentiful, the more complained about problem really is that energy is far too plentiful.

Maybe you'd want a base on the moon, but free-floating in space would work even better.

Living inside an asteroid is a common scifi trope but very impracticle. They arent rocks. Most are more like sand dunes or rubble piles. You couldnt just dig a hole, slap a door on it and pump in air. You might bury your hab undrground to protect it against radiation but you would never have walls made of rock, not if you want air to breath.