> All of this makes it seem like this is necessary just to get to the moon with Starship
The Artemis architecture requires in-orbit refuelling to go anywhere interesting. (More due to the limitations of SLS and Orion than Starship, but I digress.) The Artemis architecure isn't necessary to go to the moon--Apollo had no in-orbit refuelling.
We've chosen an architecture that requires in-orbit refuelling to go anywhere because it better scales to going to Mars.
The Artemis architecture requires in-orbit refuelling to go anywhere interesting. (More due to the limitations of SLS and Orion than Starship, but I digress.) The Artemis architecure isn't necessary to go to the moon--Apollo had no in-orbit refuelling.
We've chosen an architecture that requires in-orbit refuelling to go anywhere because it better scales to going to Mars.