>as far as fanatic legions of super soldiers go, the space marine crusaders leave the freemen yihadists in the dirt.

Maybe in a "Vs battle" sense.

As actual characters, the Fremen are far more interesting, both individual and as a group.

Like you said, 40k is shallow and dumb. I love it (I own both the ebooks and physical copies of the entire Gaunt, Eisonhorn, Heresy series, and a ton of other odds and ends, 100+ books)

But even though I love it, it's also dumb. really dumb. Pro-Wrestling-in-space dumb.