turning a big dial on my fictional planet that says "questionably habitable climates" on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right
questionably habitable like desert planet with survivable poles or like dummy thick atmosphere planet with survivable layers
living on a blimp on a planet that has a layer of earth-like atmosphere halfway up and then Venus tier crushing acid death on the surface would be a cool sci-fi setting, imagine how gnarly and dramatic falling would be, have characters speculate about if you'd die before you hit the ground and stuff
real talk, you could have something like this and still have life (just really weird, fucked up life) on the surface.
imagine: a planet somewhere on the precipice between 'broadly earthlike' and something more akin to Neptune or Uranus; deep oceans but small enough to have some land near the surface, plenty of volcanic activity with a thick enough (likely helium-rich) atmosphere to render the surface below crush depth to humans; hot, humid climates all around, you'd be crushed and cooked at the same time, but to life as a whole, we're talking about the equivalent of deep sea vents with access to sunlight. forests, probably in wild shapes, even weirder fauna - just never try to descend down from your home in the clouds to look up close unless you want to turn yourself into an interstellar whalefall.