I think we can assume that Leo posits that comment as jest. If one assumes the most positive, optimistic case. Needless to say, all four Empires are pretty diverse places. I'd like to see all of us dig up four cityscapes or street level images and show ther parity with our view of the four main empires (or factions of our choosing). Maybe spring board a little backstage 'aesthetic parity' project looking into how we, individually, see the world of eve with regards to the aspects we rarely, if ever, get artwork for?
I can already see Dam Torsad as Vatican-meets-Dubai on a country-sized scale. Falconry might even be a highly skilled, middle class profession for some (see how Dubai is kept relatively clean and uneroded by Pidgeon droppings, and the men who enable that).
As for the first image posted, the kind of disparity shown in the AI film (and book more importantly) between districts for pleasure and districts for living, could easily enable that kind of blatant, unashamed borderline sexuality to exist in it's own microcosm within an otherwise more conservative, natural metropolis. I like the concept that the borders between Federation districts and neighborhoods are harder to define than most.