Fuel transfer seems like a trivial problem next to the reusable heat shield. And even if for some weird reason it never works, the program could likely pay for itself just launching Starlink/Starshield with full reuse.

Only for going to the Moon or Mars. As a launch system, Starship will still be a phenomenal success even if they struggle with fuel transfer, which is really an entirely different problem.

Fuel transfer isn't needed to launch to LEO at much lower cost.

Even without enabling missions requiring refuelling this is still a huge step change in orbital capabilities.

Orbital refueling seems like a small problem compared to a reusable starship.

No really it can now launch 20x the Starlinks per flight and StarMind is possible now economically.

plenty of use cases were fuel transfer is not needed.

It changes cost to put up satellites, which is very significant.

It might not change much for mars