How about investing all this time in trying to develop alternative propulsion system? This will not be categorize as a progress from the traditional rocket propulsion ?
You're acting as though NASA announced that it will exclusively focus on last century technology. NASA is spending a lot more time and money focused on future rockets and spacecraft than they are on the F1. Check the article again: this is just a small team of junior engineers. Also, given that most of the people who build the moon rockets are dead, studying what they did is extremely important. It's like school: most of what you learned is old news, invented by people long dead. Better not spend any time learning about it, right?