I've been arguing this exact case for a long time now
<Seeing this, some analysts proposed that the shuttle be phased out, that cargo launches be carried aboard by far cheaper, unmanned, throwaway rockets and that NASA build a small "space plane" solely for people, to be used on those occasions when men and women are truly needed in space.
The Russians have proven time and again that you don't need to launch people when you send up large payloads like space station modules. You don't need to send up people to launch satellites, either.