If we're talking about destroying something culturally important, like, seriously defacing the near side of the Moon for example, I get it, but getting sentimental about asteroids is extremely silly. Are we really so morally stupid as to consider "disturbing the pristineness of space" a worse offence than depriving ourselves of the prosperity that could be brought with virtually unlimited resources, all without the terrors that mining on Earth currently brings?

Between a lifeless space rock the size of a mountain we didn't know existed earlier that year, and an actual mountain on Earth, you know which one I would much rather preserve every time.