the reasons for going to the moon are more than just stepping stone to mars, first there maybe some minerals there that are economic to mine, but that's still speculative, to be proven.

most importantly though China has made moves that looks like it is intending to take the "commanding heights" militarily on the moon, this is no shit serious.

we may see the moon, or lunar orbits, cis lunar orbits, earth-moon L1 Lagrange point or earth orbits become the next battlefield.