There were reasons, 40 years ago, to go to the Moon.

The soviets were in front from 1957 till 1965.
A president made a bet, was shot , became a legend, was replaced by the most pro-space president so far and under his presidency, NASA built 20 Saturn 5 rockets and knew the highest funding even though the Soviet Union had already been cought up.
There was a huge momentum, a lot of anticipation and mounting excitment....

No scientific reason (science took advantage of the opportunity), no commercial nor strategic reason, and yet it was done.

The public didn't mind flags and footprints! In fact, it was the flag that made it possible, more than all the rest !!!

It was done because it could be done and because people felt good about it!

It's the flag that built Endeavour after Challenger. It's the flag that builds the ISS; it's the flag that is producing Ares 1 and Orion and hopefully Ares 5 and Altair.
But the flag might also stop the program after a while...Before a return to the Moon? I don't think the flag would like it!
The shuttle was very limited in what it could achieve after it's first flight and needed other reasons than the flag but they didn't materialize. A capsule leaves a lot more room to what it can achieve! (Staying longer, docked; going higher ) and leaves rooom to flag easons. It also can be interrupted without too much harm to a program as it is not what takes payloads to space (the shuttle had so many payloads and programs waiting that Challenger didn't stop it, not even the Ariane successes).
If it's flag, footsteps, pork and jobs programs that take humans to the Moon, I'd much prefere it than nothing at all. So far, what else has taken humans to low Earth orbit?