Yep.Mechalich wrote:The bottom line is that empires are economic entities as well as political ones, and the economic forces are very, very strongly against the formation of a solar empire and very much for the Earth just extracting whatever it wants and hauling it back home for use here. Establishing space colonies, as opposed to space mining platforms, is only something you do if Earth isn't looking like home anymore. And you have to damage Earth a lot to get there. Every single other place in our Solar System is significantly less accommodating to human life than Antarctica.
I would note however that the conceit of many "Solar System Sci-Fi" - such as Gundam - is premised on a conflict between Earth and the "colonies". However, much of this sci-fi was developed in the 60s and 70s, which presumed large human populations were necessary to achieve industrialization and extraction in space (and also because the downfall of imperialism was a hot topic back then). Realistically, the highly automated "oil rigs in space" approach you mentioned is more likely because of the challenges of creating long-term human habitation in space.
A different tack could be a deliberate migration to space due to the overpopulation of Earth - again another Gundam trope. But barring the development of low-cost Earth to space travel (e.g. a Space Elevator) an Elysium-style space station exclusive to wealthy elites is more likely than the Gundam-style space colonies housing millions of displaced migrants looking for a better life.