It is not so much a question of Luna being like Mars or not
It's the matter of, do you want to learn how to set up and maintain a human colony on another world for the FIRST time that is just a few days away from Earth or many months away in the event of a serious problem?
And we still have much to learn about our natural satellite, too.
Some day humans will be all over the Sol system and beyond, it's only a matter of time.