Exactly. This risk aversion basically means that planets will only be explored if 100% safety is assured. Well, that goes against the grain of a lot of human nature. Starships would offer a healthy middle ground to getting out there, while still operating drones.
This doesn’t make any sense. Of course planets will be explored if there are incentives to do so even if 100% safety isn’t assured and even if holomatter avatars couldn’t be used for some reason. But if they could be, and until there is a specific need to go there in person, how do you justify doing it?
Remember, we’re talking about procedures one could face disciplinary action over if it couldn’t be proven that all the necessary precautions had been taken. Vague appeals to “human nature” and “healthy middle ground” aren’t going to fly there. You’ll need to be very specific on why a member of your crew had to die from a spear wound if a holographic avatar would’ve worked in that situation. The same goes for sending an entire starship instead of using a transwarp beam.