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On the other hand, NASA’s (recent!) insistence that everything be justified in terms of the search for life is not shared by everybody.

I for example really don’t care at all about potential microbial life vs. extending the domain of earth’s life through permanent settlement and terraformation of both Mars and Venus.

The cloud cover on Venus is so thick it could contain life right now. The belief that it’s necessarily barren due to extreme conditions predates the widespread knowledge of extremophile earthbound life. If you gave me better than even odds that there is life on Venus I’d take them.

I'm not sure there is consensus that Mars is much more likely to have had life. As the article states, Venus had liquid water for 3 billion years versus 400 million for Mars.