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I think the gritty fantasy trend is partly because of the success of GRRM. Every successful thing is copied, either as a cynical cash-in, or just through inspiring the people who loved it.
Personally, I got quite fed up with the sanitised theme-park fantasyland that a lot of epic fantasy used to take place in, so I'm happy to see some realistic grime.
I haven't noticed SF being particularly pessimistic, but I think it reflects popular attitudes to science. If you believe in climate change (or global warming, as we used to call it before dumbing down) then your future earth might not be a utopia, and if you don't then scientists are engaged in an evil conspiracy, which isn't exactly optimistic either.
Also, it's not easy to get a good story out of a happy and peaceful utopia.
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