So, I'm very excited about Spelljammer, but I'll confess that I have some differences in opinion about how to approach fantasy in space. I grew up on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and when I was eight or nine, I discovered Star Wars and became totally obsessed with it (I had a few blessed years before the prequels came out, each of which I convinced myself I liked and then that opinion changed upon reflection).
Spelljammer's approach to space-faring, at least historically (and, given the ship that just straight up looks like a sailing ship in the reveal trailer, probably in 5th Edition as well) is very much based on the idea that this is a fantastical version of space travel. The original creators of the setting were concerned with how to justify people fighting with swords and shields and wearing wizard robes in a sci-fi setting and basically said "well, it's not sci fi. It's just fantasy in space."
For me, though, I really love the idea of combining the technological elements of science fiction with the magic and forces of fate, destiny, gods, and such of fantasy.
Star Wars is obviously the most popular and well-known example of this type of science-fantasy. There are starships that have to be airtight, technological explanations for things like faster-than-light travel (something that, if you read about the physics of hypothetical FTL is way more complicated than it seems intuitively, given the relationship between the speed of light and the nature of time and causality), along with robots and laser blasters. But Star Wars also has a deeply mystical aspect - the Force is this sort of non-anthropomorphic god and even as the average person has no access to anything supernatural, the fate of the galaxy is fundamentally shaped by the supernatural conflict at play and the individuals who stand as representatives of those supernatural forces.
Still, I think a lot of people file Star Wars away as simply science fiction. It's not at all "hard" sci-fi like The Martian or The Expanse, but the mere presence of modern or futuristic technologies disqualifies it from those who define fantasy as an inherently pre-industrial, pre-scientific revolution environment.
And to be fair, the line's blurry - actually I'd argue it's a spectrum rather than discrete categories. Consider Dune, which is one of the biggest classics of science fiction. This one, too, has a sense of broader forces at work steering humanity - but the means are, in theory, not mystical but the result of sociological and technological development. Those prophecies that Paul seems to fulfill on Arrakis were planted in that culture over ten thousand years ago by people who were planning to produce someone like Paul through their deeply creepy breeding programs. But if he (or his son) winds up effectively being that same messianic figure that the Fremen were hoping for, what difference does it make?
In the event (eventuality?) that I run a Spelljammer game, I would want to lean in more toward the sci-fi look and feel. I have a deep love of that genre, but I also have a deep comfort and familiarity with D&D.
And, in all honesty, I think the genre blend that Paizo went for with Starfinder is actually much closer to how I would want to run such a campaign. Starfinder has their default Pathfinder setting, which even in its fantasy RPG involves a bit of planetary romance (the old-school genre of space-faring sci fi like John Carter of Mars,) and imagines a far future in which there's a big historical gap in everyone's memory and the main "Earth"-like planet that serves as Pathfinder's central setting has disappeared and been replaced with a massive mega-city space station.
Starfinder still has magic. The Technomancer is sort of the equivalent of a Wizard while the Mystic is sort of the equivalent of a Cleric (with a bit of Druid thrown in). But most classes instead rely on technology - weapons are more complex, with the upgrading of weapons a major part of player progression (your starting dagger might only do 1d4 damage, but by higher level you'll easily be able to buy a non-magical dagger that deals 4d4 or more). There's a huge variety of guns to choose from, though also plenty of melee weapons (some of which do elemental damage, like a "flame doshko" which is somewhat like a spiked axe whose blades are actually superheated plasma pumped through jets on the hilt).
Starfinder, of course, is not the same system as Pathfinder. They had to rebuild a lot of the game from the ground up to support this more sci-fi setting. There are different classes. There is a conversion guide to transform Pathfinder characters into Starfinder ones (and even if they push for more sci-fi appropriate playable races, there are instructions on how to use fantasy races like elves and dwarves in it).
Spelljammer, by contrast, is still fundamentally part of the same game system as 5th Edition D&D. There's no "computers" skill in Spelljammer, because they want you to be able to use the same character sheet that you have in D&D games.
Honestly, I can see this being an easier way to get people into a game. At least in my game groups, I'm skeptical I'll be able to get people to play Starfinder simply because it require learning a new game system (one that, while similar to D&D, has, for example, a pretty different action economy in combat).
Still, there is a part of me that want WotC to take a page out of Paizo's book and create some alternate rules to handle a truly sci-fi conversion of D&D.
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