I think this is a moot point.

I'd actually never heard of this short story until now, but I'm going to find it and read it because it seems to be trying to do almost exactly what my novel tried to do. I self-published it because it became quite clear to me that there was no interest in fiction that cut so close to reality, and the negative feedback that I've gotten about it has been "I'm just looking for an escape, not this."

So asking "do we have a duty to write about pressing social issues" strikes me as being very similar to asking "do we have a duty to alienate our audience if that's what it takes to make a point?"

It's incredibly frustrating.