tbf, with Giedi Prime they’re at least doing it deliberately because of some lore mumbo-jumbo about how that planet’s sun works

True, and same for Arrakis. While i don't remember there was anything about it in the book itself, apart from the usual desert sun mentions, Herbert did wrote in the appendix what stars those planets orbits. Arrakis is a satellite of Canopus, very bright white giant star, so the light would be harsh, and Giedi Prime orbits Beta Ophiuchi, which is a orange star slightly colder than Sun, but it's currently dying in the form of orange giant over 60 times brighter than Sun, meaning that Giedi Prime is absolutely blasted with light (but not the heat) and the star would be fuckhueg in the sky.

it’s the lack of… anything. It’s like people in Denis’ Dune universe have just recently invented the concept of furniture, and haven’t gotten around to figuring out interior decoration yet

Yeah. Also i was pretty disappointed that Arrakin city was only shown as a single fortress - and in this context the palms did not had much sense.

that’s why I love the space landsknechts from the miniseries so much

Yeah i love the landsknechts too, though i cannot miss the fact that they were very much desaturated, into the blacks and purples while original landsknechts were looking as much as a peacocks as they could. Though the Salusa Secundus scene in the new movie was awesome, in the 1st part Sardaukar were successfully build as incredible elite dread army, but it was completely abandoned in 2nd part where they barely even register.