I’m a sci-fi geek. If you want to be lewd about it, space ships and giant mechs make me wet. Strange thing is… so do swords and hot elven chicks. Someone once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I’d like to one up them, “Any sufficiently well explained magic is indistinguishable from technology.”
During “The Prestige” they explain how a magician can make a bird disappear from a cage. Now at this point, has it become a technological feat, or is it still magic? What about concentrating cosmic forces into fireballs? Is there any functional difference between shooting laser beams out of a rifle and shooting them out of your palms?
The vast majority of stories that make it big in any real sense are the actually very, very old and formulaic. Certain things excite people, certain characters especially. Tell me if you’ve heard this before, “backwoods farm boy discovers great destiny/power too late to avert tragedy on the home front, vows to avenge tragedy on evil organization, surrounds themselves in a cast of quirky characters, a sage, a thief, a strongman, and a woman of courage and conviction.” Yeah I was thinking of The first few wheel of time books too.
Point is your setting should not define the shape and flow of your story, that would be the writers job. Whenever one particular genre comes to the fore, it’s just because someone in that genre hit the perfect storm of writing, publicity and timing. Considering how fickle and fleeting those tend to be, there isn’t reason to be intimidated by it.