What do you think is the reason why people hate the politics in the Star wars prequels but people like LOTGH despite a large part of it being about politics? (ignoring the fact that LOTGH politics is obviously more based, since normies generally don't care about that)
Edit: LOTGH=Legend of the Galactic Heroes for those who don't know
Because almost everything in Star Wars is an epic opera scaled caricature. It's not a setting that people sat down and really thought about very much.
"Kid, it's not that kind of movie. If they notice your hair we're all in big trouble."
-Mark Hamill mimicking Harrison Ford
Tanaka's setting is a generalization, but only in the sense that it's the Napoleonic Wars in space. Once you understand that, you start to see parallels everywhere and you realize all he's really done is taken history, rearranged a few things, replaced some names and added spaceships.