If we are allowed to do that, I think we should use star trek transporters. They would be even cheaper and even better. We don't know how to build those either...
If it's as safe or safer than any other mode of transport then who cares if technically one copy gets destroyed, your body is doing that every few years anyhow.
Because he's human and despite every fibre of his wit possibly thinking otherwise, he has some unshakeable suspicion that he has a spirit or is at least more than a mere golem?
I dunno, that's what puts me off the idea.
Most of the energy of a spaceship in star trek is provided by anti-matter annihilation. Those are stupendous amounts of energy that they have available. Transporters may not be cheaper or better than space elevators. They're just far more convenient.
For lifting gigatons of raw material into space you probably still want an elevator or other more "conventional" launch systems (anti-grav, impulse engines, etc.). Or just tow asteroids from outside the gravity well to your manufacturing site.
[1] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16610-diamond-no-long...
"It is noted that lonsdaleite exhibits almost identical ideal tensile strength and only slightly larger pure ideal shear strength compared to diamond. The significant enhancement in its indentation strength occurs under biaxial stress loading conditions. The situation in w-BN versus c-BN is similar. All past calculations have shown that diamond exhibits the highest strength under various loading conditions compared to other materials, which was consistent with all available measurements. Here we show for the first time that w-BN and lonsdaleite exhibit higher strength than diamond under indentation."
So, indeed, diamond is still the winner here.