One of my issues with DSC season 3 is that it reminded me of the Kevin Sorbo series Andromeda (which was based on a Roddenberry idea), except I liked the idea for why the System Commonwealth fell in Andromeda better than what we got for the fall of the Federation with the Burn in DSC.
To me, it was more intriguing to think about Federation values leading them to try to make peace with something like the Magog (i.e., a vicious and violent species that feeds on others, and lays its eggs inside its victims) and that divides the Federation and the fracture tears it apart when species within it see its kindness as weakness.
I thought the most interesting scenes of Discovery season 3 is when Osyraa basically sues for peace, and Vance tries to figure out whether it's real or a ploy.
The entire deal is an attempt to get the positive political capital of the Federation while corrupting what was left of it. And it relied on a tactic that the Federation in almost every circumstance is ready to pursue: negotiation and agreements. But Osyraa wanted peace, but peace on her terms. The admiral knew that she wanted to pull the strings from behind-the-scenes. Also, some of the terms she lays out didn’t sound like the Emerald Chain had any intentions of fundamentally changing. She mentions anti-slavery legislation but legislation isn’t law until it’s passed, and even then having a law doesn’t exactly mean anything if the people who’re supposed to enforce are corrupt. Osyraa also said the armistice would entail a “15-year transition” for the Emerald Chain to stop violating the Prime Directive.
Osyraa herself says that people still believe in the Federation as a symbol of “hope.” The only thing that’s probably kept what’s left of it together is that belief. To make an agreement with the Emerald Chain, an organization that’s committed war crimes, condones slavery, and routinely violates Starfleet’s highest principle would undermine that faith without a public example that the Emerald Chain was willing to change and answer for their conduct.
And to me what made all of this even better is that if you start thinking about it, is there really a lot of diff between an agreement with the Emerald Chain and the Klingon Empire of the 23rd century? From what we're told and see in "Errand of Mercy," the Klingons have committed atrocities on par, but (from what we know) the Klingons didn’t have to pass anti-slavery legislation and have officials stand trial as part of the Khitomer Accords.
