I'm not making any claim we can do this right now. I'm just making a claim that working towards this as a goal is important to many people for what I think are understandable reasons.

Also, the sooner you can get to Mars more reliable and more cheaply with larger payloads, the sooner that becomes a reality. Even if it never happens in my lifetime, that doesn't mean I think it's not worth working towards making all those things more real so it can be a reality at some point in time.

> i'd strongly disagree with the notion that Mars is even a top priority for a diversification of baskets.

Without even knowing specifically what you think would be a better choice, my guess is that cheaper, more reliable launch capabilities with bigger payloads will help that too.