That approach was for Beyond, and as that's failed, we don't really know if that's still what Paramount wants for the franchise moving forward.
I remember the rumors about them trying to replicate gotg but yeah, they failed. I think the strongest aspect of gotg as well as Infinity War is how much ensembles these movies are. You can have a ton of characters with different stories, relationships and roles and they all get their time to shine and get developed regardless them being the protagonist. Things aren't mutually exclusive. It is more natural for the writers to do that.
You never get the sense, for example, that the writers can't give important scenes to one character or dynamic because it would take away from others.
Beyond's team, and to an extent how trek is perceived in general, frankly has this limit and insecurity instead. You can't do more with new dynamics because they 'take away' from Kirk and original trio headcanons.
We are hopelessly stuck in the past no matter what. (you see, even discovery is now being tainted by nostalgia..)
Beyond
promised all this revolutionary family/group dynamic with all the characters getting different interactions outside of the same we already know..but in the end, out of all the 'duos' the movie formed during the crisis it's only the 'old' tos dynamic that gets more screentime. Sulu/Uhura as well as Kirk/Chekov and the group dynamic were almost non-existent and treated like after thoughts. Scotty/Jaylah also was mostly Pegg giving himself more screentime through the new character.
Spock had to be with Mccoy, even when they join the rest, to placate those who wanted to see more of the latter and 'old-school' dynamics, and as a consequence he - who JJ had elevated as co-protagonist with Kirk in the first movies - got downgraded to almost secondary character who gets the illusion of a big personal subplot, but it isn't even really developed in the end.. and in a way, it couldn't for the role these writers wanted him to have (or rather, how they wanted to use him and to an extent Kirk too whose personal conflict also is hinted but not really developed)
It's weird because it isn't like beyond focused so much on Kirk so the idea of ensemble is definitely there, but it isn't really developed. The first movies are, at least, more honest in their limits. And in general, I feel JJ is a better storyteller than Lin in some aspects, especially the characters. JJ would take the script and add character moments when he felt the narrative left some things too vague. Lin seems to do the opposite and take things out instead (Sulu's scene about his family for one, but not only.. if they ever put the script online you will see how much Lin cut from the characters.)
To be fair, there are aspects of Beyond and the character moments that are good. Perhaps, JJ would've used that potential better. Definitely, if you could combine some aspects of Beyond and the first two movies, you'd probably get the perfect movie.
Anyway, back to main point: Beyond maybe tried to 'copy' marvel movies, but they missed the point.
