universe is missing the point of fiction media!" then they’ll turn around and mock visionary shows like NCIS for scenes in which the detectives enhance the resolution of an image. Oh, computers can’t just do that? Who cares! Lock in! The point is not that the story makes internal sense, it’s what the story communicates!
Okay, but I think misrepresenting how, say, forensic technology works is more likely to have more immediate negative impacts on society than how a warp drive works. I’m far more likely to interact with the former than the latter.
This is totally fair but the sci-fi props aren’t just potatoes in a sack. They are part of a cohesive whole that is unified with an ideological, meta-narratory paste. The warp drive isn’t just a warp drive, it’s a symbol of the capacity of future technology to bridge space and time: will it be used to bring all intelligent life together? Will it be used as a tool of space-faring imperialism? These considerations inform how the narrative goes on to shape reality when it is consumed as mass media.