Would it be better to create something new?

This post was inspired by discussions between supporters and detractors of "Axanar".

Would the supporters of Axanar contend with a completely new military science fiction / science fantasy movie or series about peaceful exploration of space?

Option #1 for a future project with commercial elements:

Books with military science fiction and exploration of space are legion, and a lot of it is also pulp fiction.

Would it be more interesting to properly license and create a basic production off one or more pulp fiction titles with space exploration?

Comparatively, if Alec Peters (or someone else) went forward with this idea, then their production would have just as non-professional trappings, but without the lawsuits.

Would it be better to peruse sci-fi works that have entered into the Public Domain, and whereby copyright is no longer enforceable?

Licensing existing works might not be cheap, but anything that is well-known to have become Public Domain from a long-dead author should be fair game, IMO.

Option #2 would be a completely new show with its own brand and stories.

Unlike with Star Trek, the new show's very permissive licensing rules would ensure, that everyone would be welcome to make their own fan productions under that brand: new species, new planets, etc.

Creative Commons licenses allow one to choose between commercial / non-commercial reuse, whether the derivative must have the same license, and so on. Attribution would probably be compulsory.

There is strong merit in the philosophy of the GNU GPL license in free software: If you make changes, you have to give back to the community. Other permissive licenses also exist.

The new project would have to avoid all the branding and other optics similar to anything else in science fiction, so that Paramount/CBS or anyone else would not need to sue. All of the costumes, sets, prosthetics, ship designs, species, and terminology would have to be different.

Would that instead be more rewarding?