I've wondered about that.

Recently I have read fiction where someone discovers a spaceship/artifact/portal/alien/mcguffin/etc and then they... get the mcguffin, get more stuff, get the girl, win. The plot is just a straight line.

they're boring.

Although not a straight line, any superhero movie. they're predictable and therefore, boring.

So I found the stuff that used to fill me with wonder, I shy away from. I don't want to watch another marvel hero.

I kind of wonder if non-utopia scifi, with reality and struggles and character development... is that the good stuff? doesn't have to all be dark forest or enshittification++ though.

I liked district 9 for instance.