Pike in a wheelchair seems harsher in hindsight. What surprised me is that the actor who played him had a speaking role as an Ensign in "Arena" later in the season, and without the aging make-up (and with dialogue) I reckon he was a reasonably close match for Jeff Hunter, so I don't see why the producers felt the need to cover him up at all. Mind you, I suppose they might have felt that the stock footage from The Cage would have made it much too obvious that it very evidently isn't the same guy, even though his voice
is kind of similar (to my ears anyway).