Don't discount feat of humanity sending numerous autonomous and semi-autonomous probes and robots across the space around us. This is what technological advancement enabled us to do instead of more expensive and limited human expeditions. On top of that, we also have permanent human presence in space.
Could space be more engaged? Of course.. but it didn't stop with Apollos.
Exactly, as a particularly impressive example we have the footage of Perseverance's skycrane powered landing on Mars. An extremely precise maneuver, performed entirely autonomously, which would definitely not have been possible with the technology of Apollo's time, and even now is a bit of a challenge considering all the automated landing failures around the Moon in recent years.
You could look at the attempt to create AGI as an extension of human exploration. Presumably if we do create AGI it will eventually leave Earth (either because we send it, or because it "wants" to go).
We'll be sending AI bots out into the universe (off planet) - that are considerably far away from being AGI - within two decades. It's going to take a lot longer than two decades to develop AGI (without fail the tech industry over-estimates progress in the relative near-term and underestimates it more in the longer term).
Wondering how long they would hold, especially because of radiations. Or micro impacts? What about material stability? 100, 1000, 10000 years, more or less?
Could space be more engaged? Of course.. but it didn't stop with Apollos.