My own view is that genre iconography (spaceships, laser guns, technology, etc) is less important than treatment.

To be clear, I love science fiction and fantasy, and I do appreciate sometimes they overlap. But to my mind, I can only reiterate Star Wars feels lot more like a fairy tale that happens to be set in space.

These kinds of debates are fun, especially as so many people approach them differently. For instance, one person who commented on this piece argues that science fiction is a subcategory of fantasy, just as you argue "space opera" is a subcategory of science fiction. I've even met some who consider The Lord of the Rings and the His Dark Materials trilogy to be science fiction rather than fantasy.

Thank you for reading and commenting! :)