...that if we're talking you or me going to Mars in person then: yes, we do need the Space Elevator. If the human race is going to get serious about Mars then we need an ultra-cheap means of access - the additional energy cost for riding the SE to Hohmann transfer altitude or even fast-elliptical transfer altitude is virtually the same as the cost to GEO. In fact it is no extra, aside from friction losses, because the Earth's rotation is providing all the outwards energy once past GEO.

You can't say that for rockets of any sort.

With a set of Earth-Mars cycler-habitats the cost of transfer life-support can go way down too.

Adam