How are Neal Stephenson's matter replicators any more inspiring than, say, those of Star Trek? Or non-fictional essays like Feyman's "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" or Drexler's "Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology"?

In the 1990s it seemed that Drexler's book made many dream about the nanotech wonders just around the corner. I don't get the sense that "Diamond Age" had the same specific impact or inspired similar dreams.