Yep, it elevated visuals to canon and made absolutely no sense. It's nonsense that such a dramatic change in one of the Federation's most prominent contacts would be completely forgotten in a few generations.
How on earth would people like Bashir and O'Brien have never so much as seen an image of a Klingon from that era?
The whole Federation, as well as Kirk and Crew simply forget. I mean it makes the TOS folks look really stupid, much less anyone from TNG cast. I mean what about the other dozen or so races that changed?