I believe a robust human presence in space will include people on the scene, AND a large telepresence option. I worked on some proposals on this many years ago, when the kind of bandwidth we have now was a pipe dream.

I believe one of the best ways to explore Mars would involve a permanent manned station in Mars orbit (the moons seem attractive for this, but I suspect a better bet would be something in an orbit with more access to larger areas of the surface). People on this station (or stations) would operate many remote vehicles and research stations on the surface.

Putting humans in Mars orbit is a lot easier than having to land them and take them off again. Another advantage is that we could be a lot more cautious about contaminating the surface of Mars until we have more information.

Sure, we could land a few people now and then. How hard would it be to take the trip from a large, comfortable station in Mars orbit to the surface and back? You could take all the time you need transporting the landers from Earth.

As far as the Moon goes, I know people have done studies on whether or not the short delay between the Earth and Moon makes telepresence too difficult. I haven't looked them up for this post, but I suspect it's something trained people could learn to work around. And what's wrong with some manned stations in orbit around the Moon?