“Point is they have a strategy beyond rad-hardened equipment and the associated cost. It also tied them to an outside supplier which they don’t like.”

Another example of how SpaceX chooses innovative solutions. Instead of making their hardware less likely to fail, they make their hardware more able to recover from failure.

This article from Aviation Week talks about the supply chain problems NASA is having with radiation hardened electronics for the SLS and Orion – yet more reason they won’t be able to keep to schedule (or budget).

“A manned Mars-bound Dragon will require several capabilities which are of no use in LEO.”

If you think of space exploration in the mode of Apollo, then you would be right. But that is not the way we will be leaving the vicinity of Earth – not in capsules. Haven’t you learned anything from the 12+ years we’ve occupied space on the ISS?

The primary task for a capsule is to safely return it’s cargo back to the surface of a planet with an atmosphere. Traveling between planets is not it’s primary function, although it could be pressed into service as a lifeboat, but even then it’s far heavier and smaller than purpose-built space-only lifeboats would be.

Bottom line here is that you have to stop thinking that the Orion/MPCV is going to be used as the primary vehicle for going anywhere, and because of that the same goes for other capsules like the Dragon. The Dragon could be brought along on the trip to Mars for use for we reach Mars and want to land somewhere, but it won’t be used during the trip, and won’t need any of the items you listed.

“If SpaceX really was developing the current crewed Dragon iteration to be capable of going to Mars, they’d be wasting a great deal of time and resources.”

Apparently you have missed the whole point of what SpaceX does. They start simple, learn their lessons, apply them, and then evolve based on what they learned. To assume that the crew-version of the Dragon they are working on for Commercial Crew is the version they would take to Mars is a little myopic, don’t you think? According the Inspiration Mars they think it could go, but that doesn’t mean that Musk isn’t going to be evolving the design between now and when he finally sends hardware to Mars.

“…since the Shuttle was an LEO craft only, and Orion is specifically for BEO missions.”

Yet really, if you look at what NASA is spending, NASA is only building the capsule itself, not any of the hardware that makes the Orion BEO capable. The Service Module is being built – and funded – by ESA.

So $16B for a capsule that can only keep it’s passengers alive for the short trip back to the surface of the Earth – but not alive during any stay in space.

And you don’t think the Orion/MPCV is hideously expensive?

The grappling pin may be useful if there is a Mars spacestation.

The last eight words are true even without the preliminary clause.

Where is the evidence for that assertion?