I'm a little surprised. Who knows what they consider the main dev tree vs a distraction for Starship, and I don't really see what this agreement adds that they wouldn't have already gotten from NASA through the human landing system contract. It sounds like SpaceX really phoned it in when they bid a Starship station as an ISS replacement, so, to me, that signalled that Starship stations weren't on their main path. I'm glad this is happening, but, yeah, I'm kinda surprised.

I, too, love the idea of a wet workshop, but I see the problems. Mostly, tanks don't need micrometeriod shielding and insulation, and weight-efficient shielding and insulation would not survive launch. The kind of protection you'd need to add would easily double the mass of the empty tank, or you'd have to somehow wrap the tank in space. The reward is enormous amounts of habitable volume, but I can't see the cost.