See, that there is the issue. What you're looking for is not conscientiousness.
This isn't a surface level topic, it's something that is hammered into the essence of star trek. Regardless of whether or not you claim starfleet is a Utopia,
At the end of the day no matter what job the person does, no matter what they look like, you respect a character because they're organized, honest, hard working, thoughtful, disciplined etc. Nog being a perfect example of this, he begins as a very unlikable kid and over time builds himself as being the embodiment of impressive.
You're looking for a form of storytelling with what I would charitably call simpler character writing. You are, in other words, looking for the repetition of a plot formula with little in the way of depth of characterization.
Learn to walk before you try running and end rolling around on the floor.
Picard is the perfect example of someone who is only interested because of his discipline. The Borg inccident has some much power because his self control was stolen from him, not only was it stolen from him, but exactly because he was such a competent individual he was able to do the most damage to the federation and because he's such a conscientious person it bothers him. He doesn't give up on being a captain, because we as the audience and they as character believe in the value of the hierarchy on a ship he wouldn't dream of giving up that captains chair. It's literally this drive and competence that caused the emotiional conflict in the following episodes of family.
If picard was just an ordinary person, he would have just been happy to have survived the borg incident, would have assumed he had no responsibilities for his actions and likely would have spent time wondering if being captain was even worth the effort.
That's fine, but that doesn't make your preference "objectively" better or its characters "conscientious." Dudley Do-Right is not more conscientious than Jay Gatsby; he's just from a more simplistic narrative.
The key is motivation, what does a star fleet character want to do with their life?, what are they driven by? Why do you respect the character?
When you see star trek whether or not you consciously or subconsciously think it out, some part of you want's to be in the captains chair. So does some small part of every character. It's the kind of thing that builds the feelings of a show.