No reason to be impressed
I've had a couple of soft SF shorts pubbed but not in print. Editors saw them in a workshop and asked to pub them. I rarely send anything in since I can't seem to part with my children.
I've got an SF/fantasy novel in development that was a short story first. It has aspects of SF but not hard SF. Alien world, alien culture. I don't want to misrepresent. I do NOT write hard SF. I don't have the chops. But I have friends who do when I need to pull on their knowledge.