Almost everything you wrote was said about landing on the moon. Apollo wasn’t just “flags and footprints.” It created advances in computing, materials science, telecommunications, and manufacturing that still pay off today.
A lunar nuclear program could push forward
Radiation shielding tech, autonomous robotic, life support systems, long range communications, proof of the possibly of long term human colonization of non-Earth objects etc. Humanity needs a moon base if we plan on exploring the rest of our solar system. We need a consist and reliable power source to do it. Nuclear power is the best we have at the moment and the largest nuclear power on the planet purposely holds back on its nuclear capabilities for ????? reasons
Forgive me if I'm wrong but your issues are mostly the logistics of this. This has mostly been solved. We already have designs for reactors that operate in harsh, subzero conditions. We already have self running facilities that require little upkeep. Scientists have been theorycrafting this since before I was a child. Virtually every moon base design is built on putting a nuclear facility on the moon.
The only anti-intellectualism here is the decades of left wing fearmongering fed to us about nuclear power. The decades right wing fearmongering about how "unfeasible" the cost of NASA/space travel is , all while funding billions into fighter jets that only exist to perpetually be test ran.
All that being said, the likelyhood of America being the first is slim. China/Russia will probably pull it off first. Even India just landed on the moon. We haven't made serious plans to go back to the moon in nearly half a century.
