Though I don't think the analytic function metaphor illuminates much, I do agree with your premise. I think that so long as what is created makes sense in the world it is created then it is believable. Of course, being believable is not always desired by a writer but that escapes the bounding of the post.
That is part of the draw of fantasy worlds, that they are not our own permits a greater range of believeability, within the world itself. Taking something from Star Wars or LotR and placing it, without the appropriate context, (which would be, to its fullest extent, the rest of the respective fantasy world) into our world will render it unbelievable, but that is okay, so long as it is believable within its world.
(And yes, technically Star Wars takes place in our world just far away and long ago, oops)
I think it is worth noting that the main foreseeable draw for companies, very specifically energy companies to space, in my opinion, is the lack of planning permission. Perhaps that is putting it a little blase but when constructing solar panel arrays, the Earth is expensive for a project that necessarily wide, and on Earth the energy gain is, at a maximum, cut in half due to nighttime. Not considering that the absorption of higher frequency bands such as UV by the atmosphere would be entirely eliminated with a space situated solar-array.