You’re being downvoted but you’re right. As far as bang for your buck goes, we’re far better off taking the funding from the “moon base” efforts and putting it into more robotic explorations. There are fascinating proposals for missions that don’t get selected due to lack of funding and they would advance our understanding of the world far more than a moon base, which is almost just a PR move.

This is my field and it’s the generally shared opinion among the people in it that SLS and the lunar program has been a waste of time and resources, but unfortunately public opinion relies on “flashy” things like putting people on the moon.