Building a ship in the desert: Just say No to the proposed Earth-

Message I would say this. Gerard O'Neill was never one to overlook an advantage to an orbital location for an activity. And I don't recall him proposing an L-1 installation prior to returning to the moon and launching material from the lunar surface.

Regards,

Building a crewed station at Earth-Moon L1 BEFORE going to the
Moon/NEO/Mars means that all of its components, radiation protection,
resupply needs, etc. must be lifted from Earth. I maintain that doing
so would be incorrect sequencing, and will ultimately do more harm than
good. Rather, we should focus on beginning to utilize extra-terrestrial
resources as soon as possible.