Favorite Enterprise and why?

[Draculasaurus]

I love the D.
It looks like a big art deco cobra eating a frisbee.

 

[C.E. Evans]

No it wouldn't be. But the original point was made, exploration is only about a quarter (more or less) of what the Enteprise does. The ship is tasked with a wide variety duties, just like the military ships of centuries past were.

Preaching to the choir, but aside from that, every time the Enterprise went to investigate something was still a form of exploration, even if it didn't necessarily involve encountering a new world or a new life-form. But exploration in itself was just an excuse to explain to TV audiences why the ship was otherwise out there wandering aimlessly. Both the Enterprise and the Enterprise-D did whatever missions their writers wanted them to do.