I'm of the opinion that they had to land on the Moon but not because there was "alien tech" there and certainly not because it was the only way to beat the Soviet Union in a pissing contest...

Rather, landing on the moon activated a temporal marker that allowed other Esoteric and Spiritual events to take place.

Particularly as it pertains to conquering the subconscious mind.

In Esoteric Alchemy, including Freemasonry, the Sun represents the Conscious Mind while the Moon represents the Subconscious Mind. Earth represents the Flesh. The three together represent the complete Human Body as well as the Nuclear family of Father, Mother and Child.

Sounds crazy, but the symbolic meaning of things are bound to their physical representations. Look up quantum entanglement to get an idea of it.

The Moon is quantumly entangled with the Subconscious mind, or at least our collective understanding of it.

As insane as it sounds, by landing on the Moon we propelled the scientific community in such a way that it unlocked the ability to conquer the subconscious mind.

Note, that after we "landed on the moon" the field of psychology became mainstream in ways never before seen.

Some may say it was just bound to happen on the natural course of scientific discovery, so my claim is based on correlation rather than causation, and sure, that's the logical viewpoint.

But it still doesn't detract from the notion that certain Markers must be achieved in order for Humanity to progress in certain fields of understanding. You can't raise up one point of a triangle without eventually requiring the other two points to follow suit. One point is inextricably bound by the other points such that one must concede and elevate the other two in order for the whole to rise up.