I see your reductivism in your assessment (such as insisting to describe the lead character in the series as a "Spock family bolt-on", but I don't see the "fanservice" you claim is there. How is any of this presented in such a way that it achieves the level of "fanservice", something which requires these to provide deliberate and outsized pleasure? I myself see in the deliberate choices of the producers as well as the reactions of the "fans", that "fanservice" was the last thing on everyone's minds. Using similar plot devices for alternative purposes which provokes the audience instead of reassuring and reinforcing their sentiments, IMO, is not any definition of "fanservice" I've ever heard of but one you've decided to invent for you personally.
As for comparing Ripper to the Horta, they are only comparable in the most reductive viewpoint. There are no ongoing consquences to saving the Horta in TOS, and even the results of saving the Horta in Devil in the Dark has the exact opposite initial effect to letting Ripper go in DISCO as saving the Horta results in the Horta and her children serving to benefit the miners and the Federation whereas letting Ripper go and Lorcas subsequent refusal to make use of the species puts a desperate Federation in a more difficult situation than prior to the freeing of Ripper. Plus the freeing of Ripper does serve to have a psychological effect on Burnham going forwards given her identification with the creature. Spock has no such identification with the Horta and him mindmelding with the Horta and subsequent saving of the species has no such ongoing effect on his psyche.
Reductivism may be satisfying in certain ways, but its a problem when making an argument comparing the complex with the simplistic as well as the claim that one plot device always has to be equal across the board, because plot devices are only tools, its how they are used that gives them meaning.
Take your, "Oh look they eat people, they must be evil." The eating of people is a plot device. It does not automatically demonstrate evil, because context is necessary to answer that question. Knee jerk reductivism is an avoidance of context and therefore an impediment when seeking to understand the point the writers are trying to make than anything else.
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). I have to say I was rather impressed with the DISC version of Harry Mudd.
To be fair, I do like the idea of using organic elements of technology. But I honestly don't see the logic behind it, and I don't really like it as a convenient plot device. YMMV of course. It doesn't help that DISC, like the reboot movies, uses the "hyperdrive" effect of ships warping. Instead of actually showing ships traveling to a conventional degree like we've seen in prior series, they just pop out of warp right in front of their destination like Star Wars ships. I've come to find it rather distracting at times.
