Climate change: rockets pollute less than planes with less harmful impurities (rocket propellant is heavily refined) while also allowing us to launch satellites that can help us study climate change, also helping farmers be more aware of their land through satellite monitoring. Also, some rockets use Hydrogen and Oxygen - waste is H2O. Modern rockets are starting to use Methane and Oxygen - while still polluting, it is still much less than the impure kerosene used by planes.
Species decimation: Satellite imagery has been used to expose illegal farming, mining, etc. operations that would have been otherwise undetected for a long time. Yay biodiversity!
Destruction of communities: Idk man I feel like Starlink is helping communities a lot by providing cheap and fast shared internet to communities that wouldn't otherwise have the technology.
It's not just my comforts that I'm thinking about. Rockets while individually may be seen as useless, just like AI, are a platform where a lot of overwhelmingly positive projects could stem from.
The critiques you mentioned could be applied to mobile phones. I doubt you would actually agree phones have no place in society - it's not just comforts that are a positive.