>Solar input in orbit is higher than what is received at ground, but similar order of magnitude.
On a sunny day, it's only something like 30% brighter above the atmosphere IIRC. I guess you beat cloud cover (assuming you can deliver it to ground through the clouds efficienly), but I agree it doesn't seem worth it.
The big advantage is the PV in space doesn't experience night (aside from very rare eclipses by Earth in geostationary orbit, which happens for a short period twice a year).
If we had laser power beaming it might make sense to put large PV installations around the Earth-Sun L2 point, so the power could be beamed to collectors on Earth's night side. Each beam would serve a series of collectors as the Earth rotated. The market in the Pacific would quickly be saturated, I imagine.
Per Wikipedia, solar irradiance at 1 the top of the atmosphere is about 1,360 W/m^2, at at the surface on a clear day with the sun at its zenith is 1,050 W/m^2.
Solar flux is half gone by the time it gets to the ground (reflection, cloud absorption)
Witness the clause 'at its zenith'. That means, too much atmosphere is in the way the rest of the day to matter.
In space, the sun is always at its zenith, if you look the right direction. Further, you have the opportunity to convert all of it, rather than the 50% that reaches the ground.
On a sunny day, it's only something like 30% brighter above the atmosphere IIRC. I guess you beat cloud cover (assuming you can deliver it to ground through the clouds efficienly), but I agree it doesn't seem worth it.