Ugh, the question of whether or not something something is REALLY sf. You've answered it perfectly. Your response reminds me a bit of that interview that's going around, where Neil Gaiman interviews Kazuo Ishiguro about genre (http://www.newstatesman.com/2015/05/neil-gaiman-kazuo-ishiguro-interview-literature-genre-machines-can-toil-they-can-t-imagine).
no subject