There's a real contrast between this and a lot of other writers, both old and new, who often just put stuff in on what seems to be a rule-of-cool basis, and don't think about the history and culture and people who lead to a thing happening or a place being built/shaped (if there is history to a place it's usually "A scary dude built it" and there's no sense of the culture or history that lead to said scary dude). That's not without value - it's often all you need! Why waste time on details the players will probably never know or care about? I've heard major designers suggest precisely that. One designer, I forget who, even outright argued that creating this sort of depth was outright wrong (almost in a moral sense). But I don't agree - these are people who couldn't have written Planescape, because they couldn't have imagined Planescape.
