I would argue that the picture in and of itself, while some may consider it cool, does absolutely nothing to actually further any of the mentioned research. The only thing it proved is that we have the capability of coordinating farflung telescopes to focus (more or less) on a single point in the universe an amazing distance from us. But this has been done already, many times over. And the picture isn't that great. It looks like they need to adjust the focal point a million or so light years. Or maybe close the aperture. Or reduce the exposure time.

Let me revise the question then, since money spent is such a touchy subject. Specifically what will be learned from this operation and how will it improve life on Earth for anyone? As an academic exercise, it was a marginal success (too out of focus to qualify as much more than that, in my opinion). As a practical exercise, not so much. Yes, I'm aware of the side benefits of other scientific research, particularly in the space programs. But what new innovations, or even refinements of existing technologies, were developed in the accomplishment of this? None I've heard of.

A couple years ago I took some pictures of the Solar eclipse with my cell phone. To me, it was something of a success, because I had researched declinations and azimuths. I preset the camera based on that and it was almost perfectly positioned: the Sun was in frame, nearly but not perfectly centered). But most of the pictures looked a lot like that one...if you didn't know what it was you'd have no idea what it was. So, good for them.They calculated it right and got the picture they wanted. But on a smaller scale, one befitting the equipment available to me, so did I. And I'm far from being an astrophysicist. So I'm less than impressed. If you want to be impressed, go ahead.

I love watching science programs. And I was excited by the prospect of "seeing" a black hole. Maybe I've become jaded by Hubble and Kepler, Voyager and Cassini. I'm looking forward to What Parker comes up with. But to me, this was pretty much the astronomical version of Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's vault (nod to PanzerMeyer). As Shakespeare once said, Much Ado About Nothing. If you feel differently, go ahead.