I share this view as well. I think the expansive canon is one of Trek's greatest assets. If the powers that be were content with furthering the universe and moving forward rather than rehashing the old which is currently in vogue across Hollywood, I don't think past canon would be the terrible burden it is often characterized as.
For those like myself that hold canon in high regard, we're just going to have to accept that Trek has been handed over to a second-rate director and others that just don't give a shit about existing Trek lore.
Completely agree, Canon is what made star trek. I especially loved the continuation of the trek universe, and thats gone now. Continuity, harmony and star treks core values, and history. Star Trek had its own history tracing back to First contact, and stretching forward 300 years. Its WRONG to do away with it just to make star trek popular with "a wider audience".
OK, I was going to read this thread to the newest post, but I'll interject right now. Look: the writers have said that ST09 is both kind of a reboot and also a sequel to what's come before. And from what i know of the story, this seems accurate. And to quote another J.J. Abrams production: "What happened, happened." Meaning: A ship called Enterprise was on a five-year mission. Spock died and got resurrected, the Enterprise was destroyed. Then they got a new one. Decades later, there was a guy called Picard who captained a new Enterprise, was a Borg for some time and drank lots of tea. And who also witnessed James Kirk's death. There was a space station that became integral in a huge war, and a ship called Voyager was lost in space and eventually came home. The last thing we saw was Picard's android buddy Data sacrifice himself to save Earth from a warmonger with a huge... starship. AND NOW, the next chapter involves (I assume) some disaster which prompts a Romulan to go back in time to change all that, Spock follows, and we go on a second go-around along this timeline, except that maybe things turn out differently this time. The future thus happens in the past.