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I'm a fan of sci-fi, and I'm fine with it using fantasy physics. I did claim that if you were using fantasy physics then you shouldn't worry about hand-waving. Of course, that moved into "We don't know everything, therefore anything is possible", to which I replied: "We don't know everything, but there are things we know not to be possible".
Physicists themselves play with fantasy physics, much of it inspired by sci-fi. They are always trying to find out if what we "know" is wrong, so they try to push outside the realm of what we presently understand to be true. It's legitimate science, but these fantasies need to be demonstrated before we lose confidence in the classic core theories. The existence of research in these areas does not mean that they have a good chance of being validated if we just work hard enough at it. Finding dead ends is normal in the scientific process. So, pointing to current research is not proof that it is possible, let alone imminent.
That said, I think that stories are as important in our lives as science, and I don't want anything to get in the way of good stories. I'm not trying to be a wet blanket and claim that there is no difference between most science fiction and fantasy. I'm just quibbling over what exactly hard sci-fi is.
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