The first part of any story I read that centers around world building is that the premise is predictable:
It's US against THEM, WE are the underdog and THEY are truly evil with almost unlimited resources.
All WE need to do is outrun the hare and collect the golden chalice from the grateful king at the grand ceremony. Of course, the race is fixed.
I'd be OK with that premise if I knew a real good reason why THEY are always evil and WE are always the underdog. Naturally, it's about control. It's also about human behavior, which seems contradictory in the sense that the world we're building is anything but that.
The best part of this sort of story is that we can imply that the evil ones, or THEM, are either part machine or mostly heartless and soul-barren beast. That allows US to get credit for slaying THEM for the greater good with impunity.
Hell, even on Earth, there are those who think the cockroach is God's creature. Read that sentence again, please.
Most world building comes from the Saturday morning cartoon, a genre that fully exploits our right and duty to murder anything that represents THEM, because as we know it, THEY ain't human.
And THEY want to subjugate US for reasons that just make sense.
Stop me if I ever try to write this story.
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