I suspect there is very little justification for a manned platform anymore.

It requires are crew of five (not including the up-to 11 scientists). Much of the science would probably be better off without noise introduced by crew and the generators.

Scientists might be better off with an unmanned battery powered platform. Or unmanned ROVs.

And if you do need a manned platform, the deep sea oil industry now operates hundreds of them. It might be cheaper for scientists to simply piggy-back on those.