Hello Del,
Unmanned and manned flights, in order to catch the public's attention, need to proove what's going on by taking pictures. A camera isn't a human thing, and can be used as well during unmanned flightsas manned ones. So, perhaps, a movie of the receding Earth, the detached upper stage, the heavens, the approaching planet...all done as well with unmanned flights as manned ones, might reduce the romantic gap between those two ways of travel.
We like dynamic events, changes in the landscape, but we get bored by every day the same thing going on. Boredom can certainly hit manned flights, like a permanently manned station, but also a spaceship cruising to a far away planet.
The idea of sending rovers to Mars, rovers that can travel long distances on an alien planet, show us different landscapes, won't go unnoticed even if no humans are on the spot.But then, even the same kind of different landscape can drive the public away. but that would still be the same with humans i the loop.
In the mean time, robots cost 100 times less.

Raoul