If most space enthusiasts resent a space station turning around and around, it must be because it doens't go anywhere. When Kennedy decided to go to the Moon, it was immediately realized an astronaut had to go outside (I'm reading a book about what those moonwalks were or were no). No way were they going to go to the moon without going outside (which is OTOH perfectly imaginable for a Shuttle or a station crew).
That's why if we want to go back to the Moon or go to Mars, we should think about the astronauts mobility.
(A moonbase would very quickly become as boring as a space station, and a Marsbase as well).
Let's not insist upon a Moonbase, but let's think about a Moonbus (wheeled and pressurized). That would be exploration. Every (Earth) day another crater, another landscape; every so often, a Moonwalk. The Moonbus would in a way become the Moonbase.
And both the Moonbus and spacesuits can be tested during several weeks (or months) of exploration, on the Moon.
The same kinds of Moonbus and Spacesuits can be later used on Mars, also for the purpose of exploration, of course.
Flying with rockets above the Moon or Mars would be much too dangerous (an engine stalls, and there is no gliding back to the ground, not even on Mars) and that's why a wheeled vehicle is better.
And both the Moon and Mars would also need the same kind of launch vehicle from Earth.

Raoul