Except 0.6% vs. 0% is a huge difference. For example, on Mars you have the option of making rocket fuel from the atmosphere or compressing and scrubbing it slightly for use in greenhouses. Not possible on the moon without basically baking rocks. Mars also gives you the option of aerobraking to shed velocity when landing, which is a big saver on fuel for delta-v requirements. And even though it's nowhere near as good as Earth's atmosphere for blocking harmful radiation, it's still way better than the moon.

On the other hand, the moon has a lot going for it for manufacturing. It's at the top of Earth's gravity well and has low gravity itself without being microgravity. That lets you move massive things around easily and shoot them out of launchers to get back to earth without all the problems that come with "zero-g" conditions. It's also a lot closer to the sun than Mars is, so solar panels give you up to 50% more power for the same area. You also don't have to contend with dust storms (though moonquakes could be an issue).

One difference is gravitational pull; martian gravity is ~2x lunar gravity, which makes the solar wind an even larger danger to any atmosphere you would generate. The distances from the moon's surface at which atmosphere could be stripped away would be proportionally shorter.

In either case, the technological breakthroughs we would need in order to actually generate a useful atmosphere are large enough that I would be very excited to just see the byproducts of such breakthroughs.

> For all intents and purposes

that's excessive. certainly neither one has even the pressure to keep a human alive for any amount of time.

mars has got teratons of carbon dioxide, which is useful stuff. little bits of some other handy gases. the moon has got 10 tons of atmosphere, total.

> For all intents and purposes the martian atmosphere is no different to the moons

Not sure I agree with all intents and purposes. Maybe just some of them? Like say if the intent is to extract CO2 or N2 from the atmosphere, then you'd find more on Mars. Those two things are pretty important for growing things and breathing.

Another intent and purpose could be to airo-break the space craft as it flies in for a landing. Though it is probably more annoying than it helps, in the sense that Mars has enough atmosphere that you need to deal with it, but not enough to be helpful in the final descent phase.