And it enabled him to rise through the ranks to Captain in just a few days as well! 
He definitely is not the Kirk I know and love!
Nope. Prime Spock immediately recognizes both Kelvin Kirk and Kelvin Scotty as the people he knows. Although the actors look different to us, they obviously look the same in both universes.
Really, it's no more a suspension of disbelief than seeing another actor playing a younger version of the same character in a flashback. And that's more or less all ST09 is. The main reasons it was set in a separate universe were to give the filmmakers as much freedom as possible and to avoid the more obsessive TOS fans from blowing a gasket.
Yes, that was a case where the fact that both characters were recast actually disguised a major plot hole in the film. If Connery had stayed in the role of Bond, I'm sure they would've had to address that in some other way.A much more confusing situation would be, say, when James Bond in the disguise of Sir Hilary Bray from the London College of Arms visits Ernst Stavro Blofeld in OHMSS, with Bond knowing it's Blofeld (duh, bald head and sinister disposition in addition to the white cat running around) but Blofeld seemingly not knowing that "Sir Hilary" is Bond until he inadvertently reveals himself trying to make love to one of Blofeld's allergy patients at Piz Gloria. "Sir Hilary Bray" is just James Bond with glasses and a fake, posh and upper-class accent. He didn't have plastic surgery to infiltrate Blofeld's base of operations at Piz Gloria.
...But the movie explicitly shows us that Spock physically recognizes them both. He identifies both Kirk and Scotty by name a second or two after seeing them. Why would you discount a simple, clean explanation like that in favor of something more convoluted like "Spock saw something that reminded him of the TOS Kirk and Scotty, but it wasn't their physical appearance"? I get that you don't like the Kelvin movies, but it's strange to outright reject what the movie plainly shows us. I just don't see any advantage to that.
Yes, that was a case where the fact that both characters were recast actually disguised a major plot hole in the film. If Connery had stayed in the role of Bond, I'm sure they would've had to address that in some other way.
The makers of OHMSS actually considered saying that Bond had had plastic surgery to change his appearance at one point, but they decided against it. It was probably a good decision not to call any more attention to the casting change than necessary.
My apologies. I'd seen several other posts from you where you expressed a dislike for them, so I thought I was representing your POV accurately.
"Sir Hilary Bray" is just James Bond with glasses and a fake, posh and upper-class accent. He didn't have plastic surgery to infiltrate Blofeld's base of operations at Piz Gloria.
