I always read your reviews very carefully and find them thorough and profound. Yet I think that here your comparison is unfair. Le Guin's is a short story. The other works you mention are researches filling hundreds of pages by top experts in their field. Le Guin's short story's purpose is to generate questions in the reader's mind and lead them towards seeking answers (which if their quest is complete will bring them to the works you mention). The goal of Le Guin's work (and every fiction writer's goal) was to succeed as a motivator. To succeed in generating a wave of abs emotions that would make the reader to move, to search for answers, to make them restless. You are already restless and you judge the story through that lens. Think what this story can do to people who are just entering (or haven't even found yet) the starting point of your journey.
Yet I think that here your comparison is unfair.
Le Guin's is a short story.
The other works you mention are researches filling hundreds of pages by top experts in their field.
Le Guin's short story's purpose is to generate questions in the reader's mind and lead them towards seeking answers (which if their quest is complete will bring them to the works you mention).
The goal of Le Guin's work (and every fiction writer's goal) was to succeed as a motivator. To succeed in generating a wave of abs emotions that would make the reader to move, to search for answers, to make them restless.
You are already restless and you judge the story through that lens. Think what this story can do to people who are just entering (or haven't even found yet) the starting point of your journey.