As I've said before, it's a matter of degree. We've gone from handwaving two or three things to handwaving everything.
I'm curious if any naval buffs can point to a real-life example of a ship being extensively refitted, defitted, and then refitted extensively but differently again?
I don't see it as "handwaving everything" when all I'm doing is providing logical, in universe explanations, for what I'm seeing. Thus far, I have found such explanations for myself to be sufficient, aside from the spore drive. That one I am in wait and see mode on.
I'm not sitting here pretending it didn't happen. I just acknowledging the possibly that TOS didn't show us everything about a fast interstellar organization. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
Here’s the problem with that thinking: everyone keeps underestimating the popularity of TOS. Everyone keeps telling me to just “ignore it.” Retconning a show that has been in the hearts and minds of generations of Star Trek fans for over 50 years just for the sake of “realism” is a flawed concept. I’m 46 years old, and have been a fan of Star Trek in all its iterations my whole life. And I’d be the first one to say that it would have been totally awesome to see a new Star Trek series in 2018 that looks similar to TOS. I don’t give a shit about “realism.” I care about good storytelling, characters that I can relate to, and ships that look like they belong in the friggin’ era that I’m used to seeing.
Here's the thing-I'm not saying "Just ignore it." I'm only saying that is unlikely that we have seen everything that was part of the Federation or the Klingons in this era. The spore drive is the one wrinkle, but I'm willing to wait on that and see.
The aesthetics will vary from person to person. I don't see them as problematic, but that's fine. Others will.
I'm 34 so, for me, TOS will always be the future. The rest are just spin offs with varying degrees of acceptability for me. TNG was not acceptable to me.
I want some degree of realism, so the fact that Discovery is expanding upon concepts presented in TOS is more interesting to me, because I like seeing that stuff expanded. I also am interested in the characters, and that matters above all else to me.
I just can't believe that the TOS aesthetic was some how the only look for the Federation in this timeline.