The vast majority of high-concept science fiction has very little to do with science, and much more to do with an audience that (a) would like for magic to exist and (b) wants to be taken seriously as members of a modern society who future improves over its past.
This insecurity is most profound in people who insist that they like science fiction but dislike "fantasy."
Science is often set dressing, sure. It is the nuts and bolts to fantasy's wood and stone. It is the forward looking counterpart to fantasy's reimagining of the past.
Hope, however, takes many forms, and some of those forms include trying to find a way to see what might become if we try for X, Y, or Z. Try for X, perhaps, and we get flying cars and infinite clean energy. Try for Y and we may get a nuclear war that leaves us forced to band together for survival, a concrete manifestation of that which we feel compelled to do against invisible forces of adversity.
Or, in the case of @post-self, try for Z and find ourselves in a less than ideal world that still allows us to love, still gives us goals to attain, lets us hope for yet more, even as we have already conquered some of the problems today.
Feeling overwhelmed by a relationship structure that leaves your partners feeling unfulfilled? That is okay, parallelization of relationships offers an out.
Want to strive towards perfection? Towards longevity and continuity of life? Towards some metastability that does not leave you feeling bored? Want to sit on your ass and play games all day or try every coffee on offer in an infinite cafe? All of this and more is at your disposal.
Hell, want to be a skunk? Lovely! You can just do that.
I would rather allow the existence of technology indistinguishable from magic if that will let me imagine a future where I am happy. If I wind up curating an audience and co-authorship that does not mind technological hand-waving so long as it allows us to collaborate on a world where the villain hides and ensures that every single normal person gets to keep living a better-than-okay life forever, who is allowed to change and grow as a person (positive), then I will have considered my work a success in the face of those who would prefer that we read only of the present at the expense of the hope that is most readily accessible to us. Insecurity, indeed.
Alas, it is hopeless of me to reply to a hot-takes post that includes the tag #shots fired. The goal of these is never to start a dialogue but to set up a disclaimer: I am going to insult you, but you cannot reply without looking like a weak-willed quibbler.
Ah well.
There's more than enough room in the space for the trope of "Secretive group has monopoly on FTL travel, baddies want to break hold, protags are in the middle." outside of just freaking Dune.
To that end everyone should go read "This Alien Shore." By C.S. Friedman. And if you need another reason, positive plural system representation. It's why this book will ALWAYS be a personal fav.
The sequel this virtual night I'm not as sold on, but it's still pretty damn good.