From a pure aesthetic point of view, TNG doesn’t really match up with the “new world” either. In fact looking at the new Stargazer, the Enterprise E and maybe the Defiant are the only ones that would fit now.
so should we dump TNG, DS9 and Voyager?
They've had four chances to do a
clean reboot with Star Trek and each time, they didn't.
TMP (1979) --> When Star Trek came back as a motion picture. They could've made a whole new version but they didn't. They kept the original actors and said it was after TOS.
TNG (1987) --> When Star Trek returned to TV. They could've said it was a whole new version. And they sort of did. Except they still said it was 100 years after TOS, 80 years after the movies, and had DeForest Kelley guest-star in the very first episode.
Star Trek (2009) --> Star Trek was deader than dead before it returned again with this movie, which relaunched the franchise. This is the closest they've come doing a clean reboot. But even here, they couldn't quite do it. They had the film take place in a split timeline, so they could have Leonard Nimoy.
DSC (2017) --> Star Trek comes back to television. Again, another opportunity to do a clean reboot. But CBS dug in its heels and maintained that Paramount might have "The Kelvin Timeline" but they had "The Prime Timeline" and went with the idea of DSC being a visual reboot only.
This has all led me to conclusion that there will
never be a clean reboot for Star Trek. Instead, they'll keep retconning things and push old material out of continuity in favor of new material, but still say it's all canon. I don't see it changing. They've made it messy, so I'm looking at each series differently.
DSC --> Visual Reboot
PIC --> Not a Reboot
SNW --> Soft Reboot
All in my opinion, based on how I see these series, which has nothing to do with Paramount's position.
I'm not going with "one size fits all" anymore because it doesn't look like they're going with "one size fits all" either, despite whatever Corporatese they might spew out. So, it's possible that TNG/DS9/VOY will be retconned in the future too, in some series.
They've done it already with how the Ferengi looked in
Discovery, which led to a ton of mock outrage over an alien species that was seen on-screen in DSC for all of 30 seconds in the entire season, if even.
It's messy and it's going to keep getting messier and messier with the passage of time. It'll drive someone crazy if they let it.
I care about continuity and canon (believe or not)
but only up to a point. That point stops where my enjoyment of what I'm watching begins. Keeping track of canon and continuity and seeing how it all adds up should be a fun thing to do on the side, not something that takes the fun out of actually watching.