Because its comics? Because the science fiction is B-movie quality for the most part...I actually liked that its B-movie quality...actually, I don't care that Krypton wins any "most advanced" prize, just that its all pretty subjective.
From the original post, we know that Daxam had cities connected by underground tubes, and I guess a smaller population.
I believe that there are comics that referenced Jor-El telling Lara of what their son's powers will be on earth...as far as the Phantom Zone, well, it belongs to the universe, so any civilization could have discovered or used it, the Kryptonians obviously didn't see how to use it, I suppose -- other civilizations I guess had yet to be advanced enough to even know about it...
I mean really, when you look at how advanced the 30th century planets really are, its mostly very attractive people with women in short skirts, robots that look like people doing people-like things from the 20th century, folks using flying cars to go to "4-D movies", and a bunch of planets that need their overall defense to be the responsibility of a "clubhouse" of teenagers...