Against "Ordinariness"

I chanced upon this article, Science-Fiction's Future -- Is It A Mundane One?, by Rob Shelsky. Mundane science-fiction, if I can borrow from the Wikipedia entry, "focuses on stories with a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written." The mundane SF movement was begun in 2004 by author Geoff Ryman. Meaning, this sub-genre of science-fiction will not accept stories that include interstellar travel, worm holes, faster-than-light travel, aliens, or alternate universes. For advocates of this sub-genre, those topics fall under "science-fantasy". Mr. Shelsky shares his opinions about this sub-genre. Here are some quotes from his article:

"It would seem, for better or worse, that sci-fi is headed in that direction. Instead of science fiction imagining something new, like energy beings that eat light, for instance, and running with it; "mundane" science fiction wants us to take something that already exists, such as cloning, and then tell us what it might bring in ten years time. (YAWN!)

I don't really understand why this is now so popular. After all, if all these marvelous scientific achievements are coming so thick and fast, don't they show the incredible possibilities of things to come?"

"...is there room for the "mundane" in science fiction? Most assuredly. There always has been. But also and more importantly, and foremost in my opinion, there is and should continue to be room for the marvelous in science fiction. For a child or adult alike, not to be able to stare at the stars in a night sky, not to be able to marvel at them and the universe beyond, not to be able to imagine unlikely and wonderful things about them, would be a terrible thing."