It is just odd in context that Phlox could keep the more primitive NX-01 running solo, though. Was the task really that much simpler?
For Kirk to speak in absolutes and categorically abandon all hope of reaching Starfleet on his own seems unlikely. But Kirk need not be doing that (except if it is already the spores at work, weakening his usual resolve). He might also be describing a lesser complication before making his final effort to get his crew back. If that fails, he might still be planning to set sail for home on his own, in keeping with continuity. This just never comes to pass, as the spores get him, too.
Timo Saloniemi
The writers had little to no understanding of what automation could do in Trek.
Realistically, all of the maintenance and repairs Tucker did, the ship likely could have done on its own if it was designed like that.
Our own automation capabilities are vast, but hardly utilized to the maximum.
In Trek, which engineer wouldn't want this kind of ability for maintenance and self-repair?
Roddenberry thought apparently that too much automation would have made things uninteresting... I disagree.. it would simply free up the crew to dedicate themselves to higher things... but would still be educated in how to repair and maintain things if the situation arises where its unavoidable (And plenty of such situations did)... I'm just saying that with enough time in between episodes and enough raw materials, you could repair all of the damage you accumulated. And the NX-01 was passing by a lot of star systems which were likely filled with asteroids chock full of needed raw materials the ship could pick up and stock in cargo bays so the computer could use it.
And no, you wouldn't have that much more things to go wrong... the systems in question would be incredibly redundant (and most of SF technology already is)... and if situations arise where automation is badly damaged to the point it cannot do what it needs to do, then yes, you'd need to use the crew to help out with the repairs... but for maintenance, etc.? No. That's just baloney and projection of outdated methodologies onto an environment that wouldn't do things like that.
Scotty was able to 'rig' the Enterprise (Constitution) to run with a handful of people.
I imagine that some automation is deliberately turned off by Starfleet for the purpose of 'training junior officers, or crew members' (in what, doing monotonous tasks which the said future eliminated to begin with?). Probably superficial for the sake of preserving a hierarchical command structure... which doesn't really end up working properly again in an environment like that.
Anyway, my point is that automation isn't used mainly due to the writers. From an in-universe point of view, you'd need to have some die-hard morons who long for 'no automation' days and want to keep things static... which is just damaging to your own safety in the long run.
We've even seen the ECH (Doctor as an emergency command hologram) ask the computer to target and disable enemy ships on his own, which was a good example of the computer executing piloting and weapons in a better manner than most organics do... but again, little to no mention of self-repair (Which would be useful for that situation).
Or perhaps the self-repair mechanism was damaged and with just ECH on board it was too difficult to keep ahead of the other problems (in which case, you'd think he would focus on self-repair first).
