They really struggled to make it seem much different or worse.
PKD’s Man in the High Castle should at least be commended for having one of the only examples of an alternate-alternate history. There’s an in-universe novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, that describes an alt history of the Nazi’s defeat and then a kind of glorious American future. I think PKD knew what he was doing here, because the alt-alt post-war America instantly starts colonizing Africa, the USSR is dissolved, and half the world gets American factories built within them. This is all described in positive terms and the book is read for comfort in Nazi America. Also there’s a Cold War… But it’s with the UK.
I haven’t seen the show though, only read the book.