That is an excellent paper by Paul Spudis.
And thanks Nick, I had not seen it before.

Regarding space exploration and the future, the
Krafft Ehricke quote is my favorite:
“If God wanted man to become a space-faring species, He would have given man a Moon.”

I would add that if God had wanted to make it easy, He would have minable water on the moon.

But even if there isn't minable water [in the near term or ever], Ehricke's quote is still true.

We don't know if there is minable water on the Moon {in the near term- within decades- and ultimately [and obviously] it's an economic question rather than a purely scientific one}.

Lunar minable water is synonymous to "a market" in space.

Lunar minable water would be a critical and very significant
market in space. Any market anywhere is dependent upon "other markets". Any space market will be interdependent in regards upon other space markets- and obviously markets on Earth. A significant element determining whether there is minable water on the Moon, will depend upon the synergy and interdependence among markets. Any monopoly could [and almost certainly will] hinder this- contrary, to what many might imagine would be the case.
Though, I don't have any problem with parties trying [and succeeding] to dominate various markets; in fact, I would encourage this- *always & forever* encourage this.

Nicks says: "Note that slide 13 shows that due to lack of fast neutron signal, at least the uppermost 10cm of regolith is dessicated (somewhat similar to the Phoenix landing site on Mars)"

The top 10 cm of regolith would be referring the "dust" which Apollo crew made lots of footprints in. Yes?
The "non-compacted" regolith.
Btw, is there some term for this fuzz. If not, someone should coin one.

It would make it fairly easy if there was water in the "non compacted" regolith.
I wouldn't completely rule it out, but I certainly concede there are strikes against the possibility.

I also would interested in the variation in the depth of this "non-compacted" regolith on the lunar surface. Varying depths of this should tell us something- perhaps relating to impacts in a region of the Moon.