(It occurs to me the above is sort of a disclaimer, disclaimer.)
I think, ultimately, what I love most about science fiction is the guess work. The thought of what could possibly happen, following certain logical developments in technology, society, economics, or whatever. In the end, most good science fiction, in my opinion, takes an idea and plays it out over a theoretical span of time. What might the Earth look like in twenty years? In a hundred? What might this technology become in that same amount of time? How might that effect us? Where will our society be, in this imagined future? I love all of those questions, but then again I am fascinated by what might come, despite being stuck on the past.
Something else I entirely dig is the ability to mix science fiction with nearly every other genre, without it coming across as particularly forced or awkward. You want to do something post-apocalyptic? Well, by definition, that's pretty much science fiction, as it usually takes place in the future, following a technological disaster. Want to mix in some western? No problem! Just look at Firefly or Westworld. You want some sort of political drama? How's Expanse, Babylon 5, or Deep Space 9 grab you? Hell, if you even want to mix in some straight up magic, look no further than Star Wars or anything in the Shadowrun universe? There is something about that Arthur C Clarke saying where "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" that seems to make anything possible within the genre. And yes, while I know you can create a fantasy world where all of your standard tropes are told through the lens of technology, I feel that is the exact moment that it stops being fantasy.
Finally, and this again is just me, I love the visuals of science fiction so much. Especially when it goes so far as to be effectively magic. I love looking at starship designs, whether near future hyper-realistic, or Star Trek level nonsense. I love jump gates, and terraforming engines, and clone vats. All of these things can easily be translated into fantasy, and have been, but there is just something about the designs that accompany the technological versions. Maybe it's the attempt to at least try to explain things with currently understood science. Maybe it's the materials being smoother, or maybe more familiar. Maybe it has something to with many of the ideas being progressions of what we have today, where the artist tries to imagine what form something might take in however much time. I really couldn't tell you for certain. All I know is that I simply love, in a nearly giddy way, how science fiction looks most of the time.
I'm not really trying to convert anyone to my way of thinking here, or somehow justify what it is that makes me love science fiction more. I'm certainly not trying to say that one genre is better than another, and that anyone who doesn't see things the way I do is wrong. What I am doing, rather poorly if I'm honest, is trying to convey why it is that I love sci-fi so damned much. Maybe I can't though. Maybe if you love something, it defies any rational attempt at explanation. Yeah, let's go with that.
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