I honestly am not sure about the regression. I think that Spock would keep on growing, but once he was assigned to Kirk he would have that period were he would perhaps withdraw and become more confident with his new crew over time.
It's regression because this discovery-Spock already had an emotional development about his human side that conflicts with the Spock we see in the series who is an unreliable narrator of himself (and the vulcans lol) and a man who tries to pass for a Vulcan only, and he has this delusion about feelings and his human side that takes him years to resolve. He didn't seem to even know some of the stuff both Peck and Quinto's version of the character know so it's illogical, in a way, to even expect Nimoy's Spock to be a direct sequel/evolution of either. .
It's the conflicting context too. Tos Spock was largely influenced by the tragic mulatto trope you see in movies like 'imitation of life'. Nowadays, mixed kids wouldn't feel that kind of portrayal so relatable and progressive. Nowadays, Spock is written in a way that is more contemporary to our era and the fact mixed kids, that he allegorically represents, are allowed to embrace their dual heritage more even when there is still a cultural conflict. Even the fact that, in tos, he had to fail at relationships to be 'different' and 'alien', and he was too defined by his role as nerdy hero's friend, is a reflection of how tptb used to write characters like him.. some cliché were quite automatic.
My point is, they are giving to the Spock played by Peck a character development that, in large part, feels like (to me) it 'won't matter' and is ditched when you watch the series. He'll lose his memory lol
If new fans watch that Spock and Quinto's version and then they decide to watch the original series, it's likely they not only will find his portrayal outdated there but they'll also think the guy Nimoy played went backwards compared to the guys Peck and Quinto played. For the latter, the point is moot because he never was positioned as a prequel of that Spock anyway. Different reality, different evolution. With Peck, however, there is this, in my opinion, delusion by the creative team that their story is a logical, natural, prequel of the old thing in spite of that wish being illogical and not realistic because they aren't writers from the 60s and it's only natural that their characters reflect that. Just like the ships cannot look like the sets from the 60s.
Tptb seem to also have a deep misuranderstanding about Spock's character when they pretend that the guy you see in tos is the more resolved Spock who found his balance etc. That's not true because tos was only the beginning of his story not the final chapter of it all. It's also a flawed concept because it seems to constantly suggest that the Spock you see in tos is the 'better' character or how he's supposed to be in the end, his real flawless self, as if he had no more character development.
Mostly, they seem to romanticize his issues from tos too by either pretending that him trying to be more vulcan than vulcans was him finally accepting himself (irony), or they pretend that the guy you see in tos had found a balance between his human and vulcan side..
I can explain this misuranderstanding about Spock tho. My impression is that people, including creative teams, may mostly remember the Spock from the movies. In fact, from that perspective, Peck's Spock would make more sense if he was positioned as a prequel of
that Spock (the one you see after the motion picture), not the one from the series. Ditto for Quinto's version.
Btw, this is typical with old things. People romanticize the past so the old thing is 'flawless'...however, what some fail to understand is that you have no story if you have flawless characters. Spock in tos had a long journey to make, pretending he was this perfect guy who didn't need to learn anything actually is a disservice to him and erases his character development.
That's why I don't like prequels of old things. Better to have honest reboots/remakes. Discovery&Co writers truly painted themselves into a corner for me and it was unnecessary. Either way, it is always going to feel like different universes, prime timeline label or not.
Loki, just so much! lol They did have some pretty good interactions, like the whole 'Let's do Get Help.'
