Herbert was really good friends with Jack Vance and Poul Anderson, who were definitely not leftists. He really struck gold with Dune, and rightly so. The best writer of the three was Vance.
FReegards
I read all those authors and more.
I used to look for anything by Daw books
in fact I got lucky a few days ago and found a trove of old books at my local second had store.
authors in no order:
Bruner
Bradley
Manning
Dick
EFord
Busby
Silverberg
Bergammini
Dickson
Anderson
Lee
Agree with your assessment of authors. I thought Jack Vance was most entertaining of the three you mentioned by far