Fuel is cheap, rocket stages are not. Recovering them and reusing is a good step in lowering costs, even if that stage is only reused a few times. Spacex almost completed a soft powered landing of their first stage. When the stage approached the water, it was spinning so much that the center engine cut off prematurely. So the recovery test was partially successful. This was the first time an orbital first stage performed a controlled and powered re-entry
The more fuel you bring the more fuel you to have to burn to move it.
It’s about energy density. We need an extremely small power unit that can outclass our most powerful rockets by many orders of magnitude.
Till that happens, space will be the province of governments and very deep pocketed individuals. Additionally with rocket tech, it’s hard to overlook the fact your riding a controlled explosion. Imagine trying to get flight insurance.
I believe humans will own space eventually, but it won’t happen with petroleum based fuels. I suspect we are missing fundamental physics on gravity and magnetism. The rate we are developing thinking machines, we may eventually create an entity that can see the solution, or maybe the next bored patent clerk will have an Epiphany.