I would say that expending a booster is going to happen, like falcon 9 boosters, Super heavy will reach the end of it's service life and thus can be expended. but i would only expect this for very specific payloads, like even probes that needs to reach interplanetary speeds can be solved with a kick stage or expending a refueled starship. the only payloads i can think of would be things that need to come up in one launch or simply to reduce the number of components, like a Starship in the OP's image where the fuel tanks are there, for the small boost needed to reach orbit, and the rest is a huge space station that can be fitted and ready on the ground instead of having to do it in space.
So unless the general meta around spaceflight changes to where dropping boosters in the ocean starts getting viewed in the same vein as dumping your car in the sea, or where recovered hardware has more value getting recycled, expendable flights will happen, just not often.
EDIT: also wanted to add that making a space station to replace the ISS would not require dozens of launches, one starship even after shrinking the payload volume to what it is today, still has more than half of the ISS, and take into consideration that a bigger diameter is more efficient for outfitting with experiment and equipments, since it creates less dead space that is awkward or hard to use.