Aeronautics v Astronautics
History shows that comparing aeronautics with astronautics and how they both evolved, wasn't a good argument.
One might argue that aeronautics evolved thanks to 2 world wars and it wasn't the case with astronautics...;Otherwise we might not even be there to talk about it.
One very important point is that aeronautics could evolve because the places to land on were already there while there are no destinations, like cities, in space.
Could the space station be just big and versatile enough to make space travel worth it? I'm afraid we're nowhere close to it.