I think this take is not particularly insightful. It reminds me of the fact that Fight Club was also supposed to be “a warning.” The interesting question is why these are appealing to so many (myself included) and what that says about our current culture and society.

My theory is that its appeal is largely aesthetic, as in an all-encompassing aesthetic. “Regular life” in 2020 in a Western country is a fairly drab affair. All the new buildings have the same boring style, a monoculture pervades everything, and the notion of something being deliberately secret or hidden is antithetical to the social media generation. Deleuze (the philosopher) has a concept called deterritorialization which I think is relevant here.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterritorialization

Ergo, a ruined mess of a city with bizarre, hidden subcultures and disturbing body modifications becomes appealing, even if the overall society portrayed is dystopian. The same appeal is there with something like Kowloon Walled City. At its core, cyberpunk (the genre) is a reaction against the homogeneity of modern technological society. That’s my take, at least.