The spectrum of "hardness" of science fiction stories is vast. From the true hard scifi where everything is based on real laws of nature, or at least plausible theories to the stories full of handwavium that doesn't even try to follow any of those laws.
And that's okay. There are fans for each of those subgenres, tou can even enjoy all of them. They are just entertainment. And even if the story makes up all it's "science" it can still be thought provoking. That's the quality I value the most in those stories.
But then there are stories that tey to pass false science as facts. They try to appear hard scifi but throw in wild explanations that couldn't be true even if the wildest scientific theories could somehow become true. Why would an author try to pass such things as plausible explanations. Just go with it and admit it's all made up and there is nothing real behind the concepts. Like I said those stories can be as good as the hardest scifi stories. Actually they could be even better as the laws of nature are harsh and don't allow many of the cool things our imagination can come up with.