>Obviously there’s nothing on Proxima, just like there’s nothing on the Moon.
Not necessarily obviously. The moons of the gas giants was thought to be inert and boring, until we went there and realized they are varied and brimming with interesting features.
Right now Enceladus is the most likely target for extant life in the solar system, and is one of four moons with a subsurface water ocean. We know almost nothing about them.
In order to make any of these interstellar dreams at all useful, we’d need to master the ability to explore the full gamut of what a solar system can offer. It’s just not sexy enough to make headlines.
Most proposed interstellar missions (including the article) are just flybys. We won't learn much more about how to do flybys by observing our own solar system.
The data from such a flyby might build the support necessary to develop propulsion technologies that allow us to slow down at interstellar targets. But they'd be decades into the future, by that time we will have done a lot more exploration in our solar system as well
That's not relevant to assuming that the rest of the solar system is lifeless; I'm assuming you didn't see what GP was replying to.
Anyway, in general, over-optimism is much better than the opposite, because over-optimism runs into contradictions and gets corrected much more quickly than pessimism does, if it ever does.
Not necessarily obviously. The moons of the gas giants was thought to be inert and boring, until we went there and realized they are varied and brimming with interesting features.