Dwarves aren't cool anymore

[Boci]

Right, and I've seen way more of these in particular in fantasy than I have in sci-fi. Redwall, Mouseguard, Humblewood, Wanderhome... never mind mythology, not that we could fully discuss those examples here anyway.

But your premise was

With fantasy, even if you leave the humans out, people can look at elves and dwarves and have a rough idea of what they're getting;

And I know Redwall at least also doesn't have any elves or dwarves.