Three Monkeys, Ten Minutes

I don't think you're being unreasonable. I like Maxine mcArthur because she *does* the whole package, and I like Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan stuff for the same reason. I'm exploring the romance-in-space variety of space opera cautiously and it tends to push character to meet fairytale premises (another form of plot driven). I suspect all comes down to really good writers being able to juggle everything at once in fascinating patterns and with amazing success and for most of us either juggling with fewer balls, juggling with less interesting patterns or some of the balls falling to the ground in an unseemly manner.