I think it depends on what the story is. If it's entirely from the perspective of the weak, downtrodden character attempting to resist the oppression, then the oppressive forces should probably appear to us as evil and faceless as they appear to the protagonist.
But if we are getting a closer look at the operations of that oppressor entity, either from the perspective of a component of it or the previous protagonist who has become more savvy, that's when they get a face. and that's where some more humour can come in, when we see the sheer incompetence, laziness and failure that plagues the machine. The advertisements all have what I call "honest dishonesty," they're lying, but so blatantly so, and when they do reveal the truth they try to spin it (badly) into a feature. That's satirical and amusing done well, but doesn't work for all stories. We only got a brief glimpse of it in AO which worked for it. Abe was only meant to get the propaganda but not the distracting comforts.
But it can go too far. And as stupid and mislead as the glukkons and sligs are, they need to have at least some degree of competence and ruthlessness to be a believable threat. They're the bad guys but not villains. Or is it the other way around?
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