re: It's just one section of Mars
It doesn't rule out short-lived episodes of surface water, but does tend to confirm that the idea of a Warm, Wet Mars is not workable.
We've lived through some interesting times in models of Mars the past 5 years or so. With new data, and with a little help from my own purple prose, people are coming to accept that a mostly cold and mostly dry mars is the norm.
That still leaves plenty of room for interesting events and locales, but makes them harder to find.
The show will go on...