Stephen Bolton wrote:

The ISS is the millstone around NASA's neck. After all the hype and effort
involved in its construction none of its leaders seem capable of standing
back and applying rational analysis to the situation that has evelved.

Of course they are capable of applying rational analysis. It's just that
their goals are rather different from yours. The bureaucrats and contractors
want to preserve their budgets and jobs. The politicians want to get votes.
Neither of these imply that the space station must make any sort of sense for
science or space exploration/exploitation.

Paul