We could do space mining today if their was any incentive to do it. There just isn't any reason to currently but if we start using fusion power (which China has made strides in recently) it would make a ton of sense to get He-3 on the moon.
Hell I give it 20 years before a private company at the very least tries to move one of the really rare earth element rich asteoids into an orbit around earth. From the calculations I've seen we could technically do it with current rocket tech assuming proper planet alignment.
I think a big part of it is because they defeded basically no one. Made it a great instance for modding from but also great for being an alt for people in undesirable instances.