Actually, not many people are really arguing with you.

While a number of scientists have pet theories on White Mars, Blue Mars, and Plaid Mars, and feel bound to defend them, most of us are content to just wait and see what new information is revealed by new probes and old ones. I would not be at all surprised to find more water on Mars than the polar ice already established, but I'm not married to the concept. Some form of existing microbial life would be wonderful, or even signs that such life had once existed, but this is going to take a lot longer to settle than the water question. If we are lucky, some forms of life may be indicated by relatively simple robot analysis or sample returns from surface rocks. However, it may be that such life only lies deep within the rocks, like some forms on Earth. A serious survey of Mars including some deep digging would be required to find anything down there.