Absolutely. However my focus is still on track records vs OP's assertion, and the our longest jaunt in the Venusian atmosphere (A balloon probe) was under a day.
Even so, I fully believe we're capable of building a floating habitat on Venus, but I think it'll be like our Antarctic bases: A valuable scientific outpost in a hostile environment totally dependent on outside supplies, and not a frontier for human colonization.
This is what is ultimately compelling about Mars, we can live there, thrive there, and eventually, breathe there.
And why wouldn't a Mars base be dependent on outside supplies? Mars is still a hostile environment.
So one thing that makes Venus attractive is the atmosphere contains everything needed to make breathable air, water, fuel, and plastics[0]. On Mars, water is hard to obtain as one has to extract it from dirt. One of the issues with systems that process granular materials is that they don't work very well. They are over designed, always break down, and typically operate at 63% of their design capability. Oh and scaling laws don't apply to granular materials as they do for fluids, making scale up expensive.
Mining the atmosphere of Venus could be a much simpler process[2]. Currently, liquid oxygen, a product which we 'mine,' from Earth's atmosphere is about as expensive per ton($175) as concrete. In addition air separation plants require so little maintenance that they are often unmanned. At the very least most places that process granular materials require a person to periodically unjam things.
Early colonies on Mars can make much of their structures out of mud bricks, and shortly thereafter out of more refined concrete, steel, and glass. Yes, the machinery to make these materials will break down occasionally, same way you'll occasionally ruin an axe while chopping wood. In which case you'll fix your axe or die in the winter.
On Venus, you will be importing every ounce of steel, glass, and soil you need for a long, long time, because what's accomplishable with a shovel on Mars will require the Venusian equivalent of an oil rig to reach down to the surface and bring resources back up.
You will have to pry every square inch of livable space from Venus, much of it with imported materials. That is not a colony, that's an outpost. (and to be clear, an outpost I think we should have)
But that's the near term game. Show me a feasible plan for terraforming Venus and I'm all ears. Ultimately what makes Mars more appealing is that ALL of the land will eventually be habitable with protection in simple structures that provide shelter, some sort of air processing, a window or two, and maybe a fence to keep your dog from digging up your neighbor's yard. Where as on Venus humanity will be stuck in manufactured bubbles for millennia.
