I feel that one of the many worthwhile things Leckie has been doing is saying "So, Cherryh, I'm saying this because I love you, but: [trilogy], and have you also considered that: [Provenance]".

There are definitely different degrees of grimdark in Cherryh, though, and you are presently at what I consider the low end of the scale. One reason I'm glad she's spent the last decade-plus on the atevi books is that they have culture and jokes and alien thought-patterns and changes in fashionable hairstyles and it just all does feel a lot better.