Since I'm interested in Mars, I read every single posting in this long thread.
I think it can be summarized like this: once upon a time, Mars did have a direct impact while helping the military. Nowadays, in the age of internet, cell phones, fiber optic cables and satellites, there is no such direct impact anymore. This makes Mars useless in the eyes of some.
Mars has become a backup service. Maybe even the backup of a backup of a backup... A few actually argued here that not even in a worse case scenario would Mars be activated. (I'm not sure how they know that for a fact, but the claim has been made).
Personally, I believe in having a plan B, and a plan C, and a plan D if possible. I'm a strong believer in redundancy, if conditions allow it. Not just redundancy, but effective and efficient redundancy. For me, this kind of redundancy is a feature, not a bug. I see absolutely no reason to criticize or belittle it.
Redundancy, by its nature, might never come to the forefront. It doesn't bother me at all to be part of such redundancy.