Ok, so I'm starting here:

Most of the bugs that are left are just engine related bugs since they are still using their 10+ year old engine on modern technology that it was never supposed to work on. Starfield is promised to have aco pletely new engine, and we know that this game is just testing it out.

That's not how engines work. They're a collection of tools that all work together, and they can all be updated over time. The creation engine that was used in FO4 likely has none (or very little) of the code left from when it was called Gamebryo. For example, Unreal Engine 5 is built on top of every UE before it. For some reason people call the creation engine 10 years old but UE5 modern. Starfield is still using the creation engine, they're just calling it Creation Engine 2 now, and somehow people think that means it's an "entirely new" engine. It isn't. It's updated, but it was for every game before too. People in the internet ignorant of game/software development have been saying they need a new engine though, so they just finally added the 2 and they think it is a new engine.

(Sorry for the rant. This annoys me so much. The engine is nit the reason for almost any of the bugs and it wasn't "designed" to not run on modern hardware.)

As for sci-fi, I don't think it's just happy cyberpunk. For example, Firefly is more of a cowboy show than anything. Usually it's used, like fantasy, to distance ourselves from issues being discussed so we can examine the without bias. This works even better with fantasy sci-fi I think, because it can use alians as an allegory for race or other things, but hard sci-fi can be more Immersive. The Expanse is great as using it's setting for this.

Also, Cyberpunk is actually pretty good now. If it goes on sale, I'd say it's worth picking up. It's not as good as I was hoping with the hype before launch, but it is a good game if you go in without that baggage.