I'm going to come at it from a different angle-this is a show written in the 2020s and is influenced as such. The writers decided these are the characters they wanted to write about and so that is what we are seeing.
Up to individual audience member to decide if they find them engaging or not. But, the "politicization" or whatever of casting has
always been present in Hollywood. Star Trek has
never been exempted from this. To
@Lord Garth 's point I think that Star Trek should return to a spirit of trying out something new like it did in TOS. Thus far I think that Discovery is the most risk it has taken in decades of Trek.