Of course machines aka robots have to do the mining. But I believe you need humans in place to plan and control effectively.
I think the real dispute is about the goals of space exploration. A lot of scientist only want to collect data. That is very important but space exploration is about something else, too. Its about expanding the human territory. You don't have to like the idea. But me and many others do and even think it is a necessary long term.
Sorry to belabor this but if we go agile, things could change quite rapidly.
Consider that within 10 years, we might be sending 52 private flights a year, containing robotic explorers, to various destinations in the solar system. One of them discovers valuable resources (e.g. gold, "precious metals", 1000 caret diamonds, etc). Now private industry has a reason to build a business in space. They need to get the resources back to earth. Private funding goes up exponentially for robotics, factories in space, and probably human space travel. VC money might even move from social to outer space. :-)
I think we all agree we eventually want humans in space.
However, as I previously wrote, I believe there will be a lot more people traveling, perhaps living, on Mars in 100 years, if we use the "agile" method now.
We went to the moon over 40 years ago. It only took two accidents to really slow the process down. Now the US' plan for human space flight is to pay someone else.
You might be right about your "agile method" but I would bet on the other horse. How realistic is it, to take mined material back to earth for a profit? I can't think of any material even if prices for transport would see a landslide.
Also, I don't agree that Apollo was killed because of Mission # 1/13, if thats what you mean. Apollo was most of all stopped because it had done its purpose, showing the world that the US was superior to the UDSSR. Why exactly the few remaining missions, where killed puzzles me though.
I think the real dispute is about the goals of space exploration. A lot of scientist only want to collect data. That is very important but space exploration is about something else, too. Its about expanding the human territory. You don't have to like the idea. But me and many others do and even think it is a necessary long term.