I think GiTS does a good job with its philosophical aspects, but GiTS doesn't only exist to sell a large philosophical thesis like SEL does. The philosophy is p

I think GiTS does a good job with its philosophical aspects, but GiTS doesn't only exist to sell a large philosophical thesis like SEL does. The philosophy is part of the over-all picture, and even then its a minority part. SEL is just a metaphor using computers for spirituality while GiTS very much is a traditional cyberpunk work. When Section 9 is called in to stop terrorists, its often not an excuse to pontificate on 'what is real,' often its about other themes like the weight of history and the causes of terror, the victims of a world where technology and politics changes so quickly, how hacking in a tech dominated world can be so disruptive, and how security forces and governments respond to these threats. Also to be fair, when we look at the original movie, its more about AI rights than an avante-garde pondering of "dead waifus living in the ether" SEL is based on. I would classify these two things are completely different categories. One is a fairly rational take on the age old "Are AI alive" argument while the other is more or less fantasy dressed up as sci-fi.