As far as the smartphone angle you mentioned, it makes for a decent analogy, but isn't entirely relevant unless I'm being too specific.
Computational power was never the problem getting to the moon. The analog computers were basically some op-amp circuits. I think they had a differentiator and an integrator. You don't need 4 modern cores running on Android or anything. In fact, simple is probably best and safest.
Overall, I'm just being nitpicky and fully agree with the rest in that space currently isn't worth the economic cost.
Hundreds of billions are spend in computer and electronics R&D every year because they increase economic productivity and there is vast market and demand for them. The demand enables fast development track.
If space exploration was the only use for computers, we would be still using 60's era computers. Without military applications for missile technology we might not have been in the moon at all.
Computational power was never the problem getting to the moon. The analog computers were basically some op-amp circuits. I think they had a differentiator and an integrator. You don't need 4 modern cores running on Android or anything. In fact, simple is probably best and safest.
Overall, I'm just being nitpicky and fully agree with the rest in that space currently isn't worth the economic cost.