Thanks for your interest!
Yes, I agree with your point. That will always be the main drawback and counter-argument against the Mars projects.
I would definitely prefer the resources to be applied differently. There is a lot to tackle here first.
Nonetheless, I would expect that all these projects could at least help us make huge advancements in science and technology, so we could possibly transfer them to solve our problems here.
That would be the optimum. Let me state that I share the dream and fascination of colonizing space and science fiction finally come true. I hope that one day we'll be at a point where this seems the wisest allocation of resources.
But until then, there's just so lot to do in reality...