The problem with learning from our mistakes is that our mistakes are often entrenched in profits, this is just an issue of Human nature and biology, in the past we drove animals to extinction in the search for bountiful feeding opportunities as well as for clothing and tools, now they are being driven to extinction as a by-product of our lust for monetary/personal gain, the rewards are different but the sentiment has remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years.

I'd argue that extinct in the wild can often be more damaging and it is terrible, the ecosystems that they dissapear from may have changed dramatically since they went extinct, this poses an issue when planning on reintroduction as they may no longer be suited to their previous ecological habitat, we are having this same issue in the U.K with the reintroduction of the Eurasian Lynx.