Ok, I'm a huge proponent of all forms of space travel, but a mission to Mars has always been the most important goal for space exploration in my mind. There are plenty of long term reasons why it would be good experience for other potentially habitable planets and other pragmatic things, but frankly I don't care much about that. Except for satellites designed to service Earth the reality of space travel is that the science and economical benefits don't matter that much. Missions like Rosetta and Curiosity are not important for the science themselves, the only reason that scientific endeavors in space are even remotely worthwhile is to provide a road map for human exploration.
Back in the 70's, post Apollo, there was a big debate in the NASA community about NASA's next direction. Many scientists wanted to do what you proposed, focus on planetary science and human research in orbit. Many NASA officials wanted to continue with manned exploration. Sadly, the Nixon administration wanted to prove that we still were leading in space, without spending any real money, so the Shuttle program was initiated, the biggest waste of funds in science history. We went from landing on the moon to multi billion dollar fleet of orbital trucks. Sure we got some nice things like Hubble out of it but honestly it was a waste of valuable NASA time and money. Fortunately we've finally abandoned those space trucks and are moving in the direction of actual exploration again.
Doing things simply because “we can” is not good enough when the price is this high
The price is never to high to do something just because we can. It is very disconcerting to hear that as an engineer you aren't excited by the prospects of doing something truly astounding.
I don't speak for everyone, but a feel good mission with little scientific merit and an astronomical cost don’t inspire me at all.
Well you are right in that you don't speak for everyone. I too am hoping to go into engineering but I never would have even given a damn about science or engineering if not for space exploration. As a little kid that stuff has a big impact, the thought of landing on distant worlds means a lot more than economic benefits or the chemical makeup of asteroids, hell it still has a bigger impact when you're an adult!
I think whether or not you believe in manned space travel does say a lot about who you are as a person. To me, nothing is a worthier cause than accomplishing something magnificent, to explore truly novel and give our species the experience of doing something it has never done before. A single man looking at a new world stretch before him through a glass face shield is more important to me than a billion boxes of pertinent data on an excel spreadsheet. Yeah, I'll take the sports car over Med School, only one of those will actually make me happy.