The lava tubes are important - and I highly doubt the Moon is geologically active enough for them to be anything similiar to the Hawaiian ones. Barring the copious amounts of He-3 deposited by solar wind on the surface (vital to future fusion power plants), the ore left behind by numerous asteroid impacts (vital to civil and aerospace engineering), and the low thrust-to-weight ratio (vital for on-off world transport), it still possesses massive amounts of unused land space - space we could use for agriculture or power production, freeing up space in orbit. Colonising the move, especially its lava tubes, would provide useful and essential practical info and training for doing the same on Mars.
We do seek profit from the stars, true - but profit's not why we travel.
*EDIT* Here's some linked pictures of Lunar Lava Tubes. Tell me we can't Agartha that shit:
Space/Science » in reply to El Dorado.
Oh, there are plenty of reasons
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- Europe to Help Build NASA's Moon-orbiting Gateway Space Station . . .