Perspective
To be honest I never liked the idea of art as escaping reality. It's a nice sentiment but only a temporary distraction while our responsibilities and obstacles wait for us to return. On the other hand, stories are sort of a way to explore ideas in a way we're not used to, giving us cryptic clues about the world around ud.
I've solved a lot of boring and technical problems with solutions inspired by a fantasy or interesting case study. Not some textbook with a bunch of facts and rules.
Stories never created new interesting realities to me. They just made the one we have more interesting, and makes me more grateful for the opportunity to add to it.