Initially, pretty poor. ND Stevenson was a webcomic artist. The show was remade in order to reclaim a shitty toy commercial and make it into an examination of identity and self-worth, against a backdrop of (cartoonish) empire.
Look, if you write off the whole industry, you create a massive cultural gulf between yourself and everyone who watches anything. Meanwhile, movies like Snowpiercer or Sorry To Bother You manage to speak to people you would never dream of reaching out to.
I don't know of many nations that would survive the unrelenting assault of a burgeoning superpower for 8 decades.