When Kennedy made the bet to land a man on the Moon, he indeed didn't think about merely land a spacecraft on the Moon, but actually walk on it!! It wasn't about the pilot skills to land (which was of course imperative) but about actually being on the Moon and yet, that was far less an issue to Neil and Buzz than the last 15 km before landing.

Spacewalking or Moonwalking or Marswalking may not have much of a scientific impact but to the astronaut who experiences it and to us who stare at him, it's very deep!! It's why astronauts are going up there, why we're interested in space but it's not obvious to sell something that gets more to our guts than to our reason.

Of course, Space missions can be designed to require usefull spacewalks but they can also be designed to avoid them.