A lot of questions arent very serious, like the hot blooded male ones recently as a prominent example. Given the academic goal of this subreddit, it seems at odds to not focus on questions and topics more similar to what someone would study at university. The reason I care is because this is a nice sub with nice users and nice mods but I feel the potential is being wasted when looking seriously into gimmicky questions asked on a lark.
The questions on this sub are driven by the users. Ask more political questions is the answer.
As for the recent series of gimmicky questions, they nonetheless did provide scope for some interesting historical answers. History isn't confined to the political, certainly not to the dominant narratives of political leaders, wars, and nations.
AH doesn't exist to replicate university courses, but its potential is only as good as (a) the questions asked by users and (b) the knowledgeability and leisure-time of quality answerers.
As has been pointed out, our format is driven by the questions from users. We are generally very wary of moderating questions, which is why the rules for questions are more relaxed than the rules for answers. After all, our whole purpose here is to get historical information and education out there to those interested in it.
If you are looking for more serious content (and to promote my own work here a bit), check out our Monday Methods series which tries to discuss academic concepts and methods as well as important theories in the study of history.