And could only be reached after a months long journey with 0 ability to resupply of ANY kind. No trees and fruit, no fish and desalination, no colonies along the way. Just months of nothing (and yes i'm aware that because of this the plan is to try and orbit resupply "drops" and I personally think that's insane).

If you want to see extra planetary colonization, the moon is the most obvious first step by a HUGE margin, and even if it was made of gold or some other precious material, it wouldn't be financially sane, but the advantages mars offers pale in comparison to the EXTREME disadvantages its immense distance offers.

IF we can get something going on the moon, it makes literally everything else magnitudes easier. Doing anything else is, at best, a pointless exploration mission, and at worst, suicide by government spending. None of the mars plans are remotely realistic or grounded in reality, and all have so many points of failure it's going to be more worrying if we actually think we can get someone there.