It's hard to guess what is in the mind of another contributor, but...
Using a cycler model could involve a network of space ports, and the cycler would take the role of a "midway" space station (it taking care for the cargo for the portion of the journey between Earth and Mars)
In Earth orbit, there would be a staging post or spaceport.
Launch vehicles would stock this up over time with consumables. The dock would provide thermal control and ballistic and radiation protection, but the lightweight launch vehicles would not, instead relying on the short duration of the flight.
When the cycler approached, a transfer spacecraft would move the cargo (possibly in the equivalent of a shipping container) to the cycler, again relying on the short duration of the flight to reduce the mass of protection needed.
Once docked with the cycler, it would take over the thermal control, and radiation/ballistic protection.
At the appropriate time, the cargo would again be moved,this time from the cycler to a Mars orbit staging post - again with minimal mass for payload protection.
From the Martian spaceport, EDL craft would take goods to the planet surface.
The advantages of this type of arrangement is the delta-v needed at the four short duration stages (launch, transfer, capture and landing) is applied to as little support infrastructure as possible.
Of course, this involves sending up more than three times the infrastructure that a single trip from earth to Mars would take, and sending twice the infrastructure needed into a Mars transfer orbit, but with enough usage it becomes economic.