Benifited.. Current set of friends are trek watchers. ( met because of Gundam!) Made me the person who I am, tend to think Picard was a 2nd Dad to me ( Had a great first one too!) gave me my morals rudder, made me question everything, explore and build.
Burden.. Hmm, sometimes being treated as a nerd, especially in the 80's, social circle in school was pretty small. wasn't talking about Debbie Gibson.. i guess..

How.. My dad, he had most of the first season on VHS, and watched it over and over. When it was remastered in the 00's I was like what is this extra stuff?? ( original run 52 minutes, vhs.. egh 45 or so becuase of comercials.. was blown away!)
Less.. hmm.. Well if the series becomes more "Destaturated" in that it starts looking like everything else, and not its own thing of Optomism, Hope, Science, etc. Then it might not go away, but not get any new fans.
Worst episode.. I like spocks brain.. Probably that hippie one.. haven't watched that in Decades.
On Gate Keeping. On a personal story, I got in to model building, but I built sci fi stuff, and all the local clubs built planes, or armour, ships etc. and poo poo'd my sci fi, saying "its not a real model, your not a real modeler etc" wasn't till I moved to Florida, and seeing a few models to Tables full in contests..