Well considering you started your post off with: "Another big disappointment is the near-complete lack of world building the series has done this year."Yes. I've seen the episode. Thank you.
Yet ships seem to have no problem getting around, regardless.
Again, yes. I've seen the episodes.
I'm well aware of what the series has shown us. That's not what I'm disputing. It's what they haven't shown us or developed further that can make the material more interesting, hence my original post. A lot is revealed in that negotiation scene about both sides that only raises more questions that wouldn't have to be asked if the world had been properly developed beyond what we are only given fleeting glances of.
Discovery, itself, can be a conduit to better develop and reveal what's going on out there and be used to give Starfleet a better idea of the full status of the Federation and, as I said, re-establish contact with those swaths that are cut off.
Gee I don't know how I could have assumed you didn't think there was any world building being done in Star Trek Discovery season 3.
They did quite a bit of world building; there's no lack of it. That they didn't comment on some things that you were intrigued about, I can understand; but that's different from a "complete lack of world building."