This is a debate as old as science fiction itself, back when, in an effort to legitimize the genre to the wider public, some sf magazines like Galaxy distanced themselves from they’re contemporaries (the pulps) by only publishing hard sf ‘big think’ stories, and actively deriding space opera, with slogans like "You won’t find any cowboys in our spaceships!’

I think at this point it’s kinda silly to pick up that worn torch of ‘pulp sf isn’t sf’ again. They’re two different subgenres, and they both are excellent in their own way.

I for one like cowboys in my spaceships, ala Firefly, as well as the biggest think. And if they can combine them, all the better.

I raise the torch because I was just over at a Star Trek community where the subject of politics in Star Trek was brought up.

I offered that politics is a popular substitute for proper sf. Which got me immediately banned of course.

But yes, what we’re seeing here is a manifestation of an age old phenomenon : Diamond is generated by a few lone weirdos. Popularized. Then the 99% proceeds to sell its tired shit branded as diamond. Until the next diamond appears. (And the populace will be damned before they relinquish their grasp on that brand)

Call me whiny.