Let's make one thing clear here, too. Braga admitted that TATV was motivated by pure ego on their part.
Okay, and I will as well. I'm not against Discovery at all at this point, but I think you've committed a pretty bad intellectual sin there. You've basically broad-stroked anyone who raised those issues you listed as being a whiny child; as if the collective whole were all on the same unified page, they weren't. Trek has always had those who championed it regardless, those in the middle, and those vocally against just about anything ever done... While also separating yourself from that if you yourself end up having issues with the series. What might seem insignificant to some, might be a deal breaker to others.
The problem with B&B is they came off as militantly against anyone who was a fan of TOS. When I said they called Trek fans 12 year olds, it wasn't with regarding to Trek fans being vocal about stupid bullshit. It was directed at complaints that the show wasn't really living up to it's creative potential, that it seemed to be playing to the lowest common denominator with the decon-gel scenes, the semi-exploitative way that they talked about t'pols "pon-farr episode" ... Which raised eyebrows all over the place. That showed they weren't really interested in trying to do a little research. Watch some of TOS with a pad and paper and take some notes, and go... AH-hah! Here's a story opportunity. Here's where that might have come from... They had no interest in cultivating opportunities and actually using the prequel setting to their advantage.
I mean, to e totally fair, their were people out there, even one of my close friends, who were not going to be happy if Enterprise did not look like it was "Pre Cage" With a Daedalus type ship or something out of the Spaceflight Chronology. ...That was never going to happen. But those people persisted. For people like it, I just looked at the show and shrugged my shoulders, thinking... It's lit and shot, and produced just like Voyager was, and it could be so much bolder than it is, and they're missing golden moments all over the place. That's not me judging it by some lofty standard, that's just looking at what they were saying they wanted to do, and then seeing them just not do anything with it. Prime example, Berman kept saying it's a show about "firsts" right? Well... The first time they meet another alien species? The first time they're going to make contact? ... Archer half-asses a speech, and it has virtually no dramatic fan-fare. This should have been an Apollo-11-esque moment! With a plaque and a prepared statement, and... Something! All of the dramatic and narrative potential was utterly wasted... Alas, what a shame. ... And so that was the general sentiment of fans at the time.
The reason Enterprise is the way it is at times is not just because they were worn out, but because Berman in particular wanted Trek to be his which is fine, fair enough... So he ignored TOS a lot of the time. As Doug Drexler pointed out, the "Akiraprise" stuff is not unfounded. They wanted to use the Akira. Not "use that as inspiration." No. They wanted to dust off the CGI model of the Akira and just use that. For a prequel show. Tell me that's not completely lazy. That should not have even been a discussion...! And thank goodness Mr. Drexler pushed back and actually made something out of the NX-01. I'm not a fan of the NX-01, for a lot of reasons, but I will give credit to Doug for really trying to buff out something that, when you look closely, has a lot of details on it that make it the precursor to what would come later.
Putting all the noise to the side though, I think the one thing that anyone who feels uneasy about this being another prequel needs to strongly consider is... It is now a completely different creative environment from 2001-2005. This is a new team, with some old guard folks who haven't touched Trek in years, with a new idea of what Trek will be going forward. We have no idea what awaits. ...But it will not be the same creative atmosphere of old. For better, or worse.
