>>102457471Wrong, the main problem with steampunk is that it's an aesthetic, not a genre.
There's no real genre defining fictions related to steampunk the established central themes and concepts in regards to storytelling. Something like cyberpunk for example does have a strong aesthetic sure but the most important points of the genre are "high tech, low life", it revolves around the concept that despite technology having become so impressive living conditions have kept deteriorating until pretty much the entire world was controlled by corporations while like 95% of the public lives in ghettos; people got pissed at Cyberpunk 2077 not being cyberpunk because "b-but, the sun exists" but literally the very first sentence in the trailer immediately places it very firmly within the genre.
Steampunk on the other hand? There's nothing there, just glue some gears on some 19th century stuff and call it steampunk, that's pretty much it.
Creative people can take what little is there and make something out if it, I honestly think OP's pic is one of the best uses of steampunk as it actually did try to work story themes into the genre, such as technological stagnation leading to mass consumption of resource, and theme that paired up very well with the aesthetic.
The people who normally gush over steampunk though? They don't give a shit about stuff like story telling and themes, they just want to dress up in sweater vests with a bunch of random gears sewn on for no reason and wear dumb looking goggles, and unfortunately this makes up the vast majority of steampunk fans, which is why the genre has almost no chance of pulling itself out of the gutter and actually becoming a respectable genre.
