All of that is so very true, Chris L'etoile doesn't get enough credit for his work. Writing the codex for ME1 AND writing Legion and the Geth in ME2 alongside Virmire and Ashley's character in ME1 among other things I am forgetting. Mass Effect is the most detailed speculative space science fiction to exist as of yet. The Expanse showed some promise at first, but to me, it went downhill after season 4 and the writers tried to keep the tech as just an upgraded bit over our current space tech, so its plot ends up feeling like a 'hard' sci fi, without actually being a 'completely' hard sci fi and since it doesn't want to dabble too much into establishing its lore and prefers to keep it vague and focus on the characters, it ends up not being a fully speculative fiction either. But, in my experience, the expanse was the second closest space sci fi to make me feel it's very well constructed. At least at first. the second half of the third season of the expanse is that story at its best. But back to mass effect, I wish more stories focused on this detailed oriented sci fi speculative fiction whether it be in the space genre or the cyberpunk genre.