Couldn't agree more. As a budding SF writer myself (I have about 4 different series ideas), I appreciate the importance of characters with issues and complications. But the thing that really impresses me about the SF 'new wave' is that the goal has changed from winning to just surviving; witness Mal's line at the end of the *real* Firefly pilot, that being 'still flying' is enough, and, of course, the president's population count in BG. I'm not quite sure what it says about the times, but it adds a kind of nihilistic romanticism to what was once the genre of high ideals and heroism. I know it's ridiculous to think of 'realism' in what is still really 'fantasy', but I think that's what we're seeing - or at least, sf is becoming more relevant to reality. Which is always good.
Just a thought,
Rik