Stupid question, but do you think it’s important for writers to do research when writing erotic stories set outside the U.S. (or whatever their home country is) and/or in a different time period? I’m asking this because I’ve read stories that were excellent but had some horrible inaccuracies.

Yes, if you care about accuracy, you should research and try to not be inaccurate. That said, this is all fantasy to some degree, and fudging details big or small is going to happen to some extent, so I don’t really consider it a big deal, unless that person is going to make it a sticking point. That largely stands only for historical stories however, cultural ones are a differentish matter. Basically, try not to insult large swaths of people by reducing them a series of laughable stereotypes? That’s generally not a good thing to do, and definitely not sexy.