The problem isn't space opera, it's doing things that make no sense. Some other neat science issues: http://io9.com/12-ways-humanity-could-destroy-the-entire-solar-system-1696825692
How does influence flow through a vacuum? Worm holes, as naturally occurring objects, are not specifically formed or engineered for travel, safety, or communication. They should therefore be various degrees of hazardous intrinsically. There may also be time dilation effects. Or something more weird, like you could be popped into another universe with different physics. A range of persistence is certainly desirable, but you should be better of m
"... but it just seems a little wrong that you can get all of the advantages for being "evil" along with all of the advantages for being "good" at the same time." That's called politics.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/09/28/aircraft-carriers-in-space/ It always bothered me that space stations could have influence beyond a solar system, that any useful information could be had by long distance scans (other than historical), or that space battles could occur at all in deep space (good luck finding a fleet in a cubic light year of space). The problem is distance and time.&