Sorry, but this argument forgets that Trek is an entertainment property meant to be viewed by an audience external to its universe. That Picard was in command of the E-E longer than the E-D is a functionally meaningless fact that is only present in ancillary materials and online fan communities. It is a wikipedia entry and nothing more. Audiences-the people who consume these entertainment products and are essential to its existence-associate Picard with the E-D much, much more than the E-E. Even me! I am a 40-year old super hardcore fan of every aspect of the franchise and its extensions and whenever I picture Picard or any TNG character it is on the E-D. Not through any sense of nostalgia or pining for what was lost, but because I have been exposed to the TNG crew on the E-D more than anything else. I realize that you and I might be making the same point here, but your post seems to suggest this is a negative. Or maybe I just disagree that it is nostalgia. Associating Picard with the E-D is not the result of our inability to accept anything new or a wistful attachment to the past, it is because that is where we spent seven years with these characters, and the ship became a character in its own right. The E-E just doesn't have the strong association that the D does. This is a natural phenomenon that I think is perfectly normal to experience. I would even argue that it's a small reason (among a host of larger ones) that TNG fans don't receive the TNG movies that well. The first one killed two beloved characters (Kirk and the E-D) in stupid ways and for dumb reasons, and then the E-E came and was like the house you move into your senior year of high school and have to come home from college to visit, even though when you think of your younger days it's in the house you lived in before that. And this is fine! There's nothing wrong with this nor does it represent slavish nostalgia.
The flashbacks/dreams seem to revolve around the times he spent with Data - so maybe the Enterprise-E is too associated with his death, but the Enterprise-D had happier times.
Water under the bridge, he's friends with the Borg now, even has a daughter with the Borg (my theory anyway)
Unless he stepped down from command of the E right after Nemesis, he commanded it for a longer time than he did the D. It can be positive or negative depending on context. Right now, I'm still smarting on Discovery's vast overreliance on nostalgia that got in the way of telling a good story. Nostalgia can be used well, and based on trailers, I'm looking forward to Picard. But there's also the hope that there's more there than just revisiting old characters and plot threads.
Let's be honest here. Of Picard's three official commands between 2333 and about 2380 the Enterprise-D was his briefest. But which one will we likely see in flashbacks? Which one has appeared at least 183 times on the small and big screens?
I think using the Enterprise D for Picard's dreams or flashback scenes make sense for various reasons, but design-wise I like the Sovereign-class so much more that I'd be really disappointed if no ships of that class appeared in PIC at all. Since it was always held back for the movies I feel we haven't actually seen much of her, compared to the Galaxy-class.
TBH, seeing a galaxy-class Ent-D has made me fall back in love with it as a design (I’ve not been that keen on it for quite some time now) - so the tables have turned and last night I rummaged through the garage and retrieved my dusty DST Ent-D!
Well to be fair stargate Atlantis had 10'000 year old ships knocking about. It seems space ships are built to last.
I can't count the number of dreams I've had where I'm back in the house I grew up in, despite the fact that I've lived a number of other places since (including three houses of my own, to boot). Dreams are weird like that.
That is nostalgia by and large. A powerful and positive association. You are right, of course, the D has the nostalgia for TNG fans. But, it is still nostalgia. Give me the E over the D any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Indeed. My dreams last night included Lego sets, Scarlett Johansson and my parents getting a new car that transforms in to a truck. Dreams are weird is only the tip of iceberg.