You say this like NASA doesn’t also do everything on your wishlist. And like discoveries in one area doesn’t enable progress in another.

No one is wasting their time by doing this research.

Our view of what’s “useful” also varies - a commercial space station is not that appealing IMO given that corporations will own the research as opposed to it being publicly funded & transparent.

Did this particular research yield the outcome you desired? No - lots of research doesn’t. That doesn’t mean it’s useless.