I actually lost the author long before your points. I think they mostly lack a wide enough definition of SFF and are themselves a bit too obsessed with *punk as a genre. (In fact, the comment section lists many more SFF authors that I read and showcases the wide variety of the genre once you leave the narrow subgenre of *punk behind).
I think you're perfectly correct in pointing out that the idea that fiction must be edifying went out the window with the late 1800s at the latest, and we despair of antis in fandom when they conflate fiction and PSAs. My favorite moment of the essay was actually the LeGuin quote (because everything's better with a LeGuin quote :) and personally I think that we are seeing a changed awareness of what the problems re. I've noticed for several years now an increase in environmental disaster SFF, sometimes as a backdrop in a waterworld kind of way, but definitely noticeable. Even when the rarely habitable planet is still ruled by corporations :)
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I think you're perfectly correct in pointing out that the idea that fiction must be edifying went out the window with the late 1800s at the latest, and we despair of antis in fandom when they conflate fiction and PSAs. My favorite moment of the essay was actually the LeGuin quote (because everything's better with a LeGuin quote :) and personally I think that we are seeing a changed awareness of what the problems re. I've noticed for several years now an increase in environmental disaster SFF, sometimes as a backdrop in a waterworld kind of way, but definitely noticeable. Even when the rarely habitable planet is still ruled by corporations :)