Venus' atmosphere is a better colonization target than Mars from every conceivable angle. I don't think they have really thought this through.
On Mars we might be able to build large stables domes, or close off caverns for additional radiation shielding. We could mine the planet itself for resources, and even grow crops there.
That being said since you seem to have thought about this I'd be curious to read any resources you can recommend.
It seems the conditions in the upper atmosphere of Venus are acceptable. If you can manage living in floating cities (that it's cool but makes it a very difficult endeavour) then, Venus is close to Earth than Mars and the gravity is similar to the one in Earth.
As always, Wikipedia have this covered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus#Aerostat...
PS: I'm upvoting the GP, by the way. Why people downvote instead of asking for clarification.
It's my personal opinion that downvoting is used too easily in HN.
Sometimes it seems that we are trying to filter opinions that we don't agree with, instead of policing good manners and filter irrelevant to the subject comments.
Floating colonies present their own issues, but it would solve concerns about long-term low-gravity impacts of Mars or the challenges of requiring a fully-pressurized environment suit all the time outdoors.
In my understanding the biggest issue is getting the mass of the structure there as you can't easily mine the surface and it doesn't have any moons to get a bulk of the material from, so you would have to wait for asteroids of the right type to be in position to mine on your way there.
Not that it's not worth terraforming, eventually, but Venus is marginally better than a space station. Pretty much the only thing it offers is gravity.