Sort of, but that the setting is in a real place that means you can assume the culture. You don't have to invent it all. If you sit someone down to eat in China the readers will automatically know they are eating a rice based meal with chopsticks (rice based would not apply to all cultures, but most people don't know China that well) and so you can just allow that backdrop without having to say what they are eating or what utensils they are using yet it is assumed. By contrast if I write a book where someone is in the city "lanorami" country "hullima" you have no idea what they would eat there unless I spend time telling you. Eating is only part of culture (an important part). In China you have an idea what the dominate religion is, how relationships are handled, and all those other details that make a culture complex (you might be wrong, but you have an idea).
Thus a writer on earth doesn't need to simplify. Just referring to a location brings in a ton of complexity that doesn't need to be mentioned at all.
If I told you that Middle Earth Hobbits are hatched from eggs do you have enough evidence to say I'm wrong? Or I could say the dwarfs don't nurse their young and thus none of them have nipples (much less boobs), again there isn't enough evidence so say I'm wrong. That such evidence doesn't exist means the culture is less complex just because we cannot make assumptions. (Note, I haven't read the books in many years, so there might be evidence that I don't remember - however the larger point remains even if this detail is wrong)
Thus a writer on earth doesn't need to simplify. Just referring to a location brings in a ton of complexity that doesn't need to be mentioned at all.
If I told you that Middle Earth Hobbits are hatched from eggs do you have enough evidence to say I'm wrong? Or I could say the dwarfs don't nurse their young and thus none of them have nipples (much less boobs), again there isn't enough evidence so say I'm wrong. That such evidence doesn't exist means the culture is less complex just because we cannot make assumptions. (Note, I haven't read the books in many years, so there might be evidence that I don't remember - however the larger point remains even if this detail is wrong)