Anything that "probe" could have measured/mapped could have been measured from a different distance as well.
Reminds of the star trek episodes where they repair or defend large radio telescopes. Why build something that receives data at the slow speed of light, when you can simply "warp" to the light source a lot faster.
It's like wasting time calculating the value of PI. Useless because in a year a faster computer will overtake the calculation. Or to start walking to a city five hours away when a bus is coming in one hour.