Not only that but the moon missions happened during the height of the Cold War. The Soviets were watching very closely and would have loved to have shown the world the US faked the moon landings.
I don’t think those points make comparable reason for the question asked.
Landers and rovers to mars make sense to most people. Not having to deal with life support and being very familiar with the mechanics of cars and robots and drones helps.
I think the crux to me is that we did a thing six times, and then stopped for 50 years, no one else even tried, and only now after tech has drastically improved are we doing it again.
I think the better argument is that while some things are easier, some are harder than say Mars. Between the solar day and temp extremes.
It's like your assuming all of the landers NASA and other countries have landed on Mars and Venus are fake too.