I don't have a tag for "set in an unmagical created world"; where does that even fit into Delany's genres? Technically fantasy, I suppose, since it's a "cannot happen" story, but it still makes me irritated.
Spec-fic is a catch-all and I make no apologies.
Do I care? I mean, yes, I am literally the person who catalogs every book they read, of COURSE I care. But part of what makes this story so fun is the freedom it has NOT to care about history as such and instead to borrow from history as world building.
But like obviously I read it for the romance and the "we have to pretend to care for each other...oh no...OH NO" because when I am ever not here for that?