No one cares about "hardcore TOS-only fans," least of all the studio. It's a strawman, a red herring - there aren't that many. TrekBBS is a gathering place for hard core trekkies, after all, and there are probably half a dozen posters on TrekBBS that really fit the stereotype to the extent that they "will not be appeased," no matter how the boosters of everything new want to caricaturize the folks who've no interest in stuff like STD.
The truth is that the direction Trek is going is very simply retrenchment. Kurtzman and company have moved in a long curve away from whatever ideas Fuller and CBS might have had of breaking new ground and doing something really different, back toward product that depends upon fan service and nostalgic fondness for its very identity.
The turn in direction was already in progress by the time they struggled to the end of the first season of STD. They literally hauled the Enterprise onscreen and into the story, trumpeting the TOS fanfare, as a come-on for season two.
No, no one will ever remake old shows in the style or mood of the originals - that would not attract new viewers, and without adding some new viewers the Trek fanbase will shrink. It's quite another thing to claim that it's substantially growing in size, simply because there are new fans.
So, you get a show built around the cast of TNG and other TNG-era characters, which is Picard. A show that's a TNG-era light comedy, Lower Decks. You get another show with Janeway in it, Prodigy. And you get a kind of reboot of TOS-era Star Trek, Strange New Worlds, built around modern versions of the original Trek characters. And those shows are where all the heat and excitement and promotional energy goes. None of it is "redefining Trek for a new generation" or anything like that. It's exploiting the fondness that viewers have for Trek from the past.
Which is fine, I suppose. Star Trek is a "mature property." There's no widespread demand for taking Law & Order in "a bold new direction to keep up with the times," nor is there one for Trek. Just keep as many of the folk who've always watched it watching it now, program to attract new viewers - especially kids - to replace the old folks who drift off or, at this point, literally die off, and hope to sustain some slow growth of viewership over time.
