No, they don't need to. But, what's the point of setting it in that time frame then?
Maybe you'll point me to the current address of the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, or the Soviet Union. And maybe explain how the Japanese couldn't possibly be a major player in 1944 because ten years later the only enemy anyone cared about was the Russians (or the Chinese).
You can have difficulty buying into whatever race you want, your difficulty has no bearing on whether the race is logically believable or not. And there's no logical reason why there couldn't be another major player out there in the 2250s that the Enterprise (1 ship) just never faced.
We're still dealing with Russia (the heart of the old USSR) and the Roman Empire shaped a lot of our Western World to this day. But, these are human populations where, in some cases, just the ruling class changed. Very different than a belligerent alien species! And, we're only talking about 10 years!
We'll have to agree to disagree. And, as I've pointed out, this is not in the realm of fact. There's no correct or incorrect answer. It's a matter of personal preference. Some people care more about the larger context and having game changing possibilities at that level. Those people will tend to have more issues with a prequel. Others don't care as much about that larger context and they'll tend to have fewer issues with a prequel. There's no correct answer. It's just a preference.
All that being said, if it had to be a prequel, and I got to choose the time frame, I'd choose this exact time frame! So, there's definitely aspects to it that I'm really looking forward to. I like most everything I'm hearing from Fuller about the approach. So, I'm excited about this series and very much looking forward to it.
However, I'd be remiss to not notice that there are certain aspects of it being a prequel that impose restrictions that I care about. I get that you don't care about the same issues, but that's life. We just like different things. In the end, if they tell great stories, I'm sure I'll find the series to be enjoyable. I think we agree that is the most important aspect.
Mr Awe