GeorgeGlass

Some people find it cathartic to know worlds can be worse or else have characters strive to at least make it brighter if only by candlelight.

You could also successfully argue any utopia by definition is also dystopian by its very nature. Collectivism is currently in vogue. While the individual is to be abhorred,  Its all so very strange.

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I don’t really get dystopian scifi. Isn’t the real world bad enough? Or is the idea to make the real world look better by comparison?

It can be useful for critically examining a particular aspect of today’s society too, by making it the predominant theme of the dystopia.  For instance, my original fiction stories put evangelical Christianity on steroids, made the society a tad more conservative, and examine the possible results.  (ie, do we want to live in a society that puts the Christian Cross onto the USA’s flag?)

That’s a really good point, @Desiderius Price.