The goal of spaceflight is not merely exploration, it is also colonization, and adventure. The rest of the Universe is just a place, and humans will go there. Not because it is the only way to learn about it, but merely because we can.
Machines will never describe the surface of a new world as "magnificent desolation".
Not really - some day, they'll share this trait with humans - but it will take some time. I want humans to experience this, even if briefly, before our much more capable successors take the lead from us relics.