I think movie Kirk (at least from TMP to VI) is a very, very rewarding rendition of what Kirk would be like as he advances in years. People want TOS in movie Kirk but that's a mistake. I don't want TOS Kirk in Movie Kirk.
Kirk is an unhappy and frustrated admiral, wannabe captain but as a man he grows, he finds that some things in life are more important than the big chair, he deepens his rich friendship with Spock with his rescue which exacts a profound and terrible toll on him that moves us all (none of this skip onto another episode he's fine n' dandy business) and that great triumvirate of Kirk, McCoy and Spock are also tested, crowning a legendary friendship. The big chair takes a back seat with all these things that really matter in life.
In VI he struggles badly to overcome the death of his son and all that baggage he has with the Klingons, he fights through that pathological quagmire and at the end he seems at peace with himself. signing off in poignant style bringing closure to a great career.
Generations -- this is Berman's show. He writes well enough for his own TNG squad but Kirk bobs about like a loose end in that film with the flimsy Guardian of Foreveresque plot device waiting to be crammed into his "I'll die alone" prophecy he made from V.
So Generatons didn't really satisfy me with Kirk -- but the rest of the films Kirk enjoys some great character development and with plenty of sublime acting from Shatner, dodgy fight scenes notwithstanding.
I think this says better and more effectively how I feel. I think there's a rewarding character journey that is happening with Kirk throughout the movies, and having him face the question of are there more important things than that command. I very much like TSFS, but in light of this discussion, Kirk goes about about what he feels like he has to do to save Spock, soul or whole, in a superficial way...by falling back on what he knows best, the command of a starship. He doesn't use (or abuse) the powers of an Admiral, he is where he is in the show, overruled and fighting someone with higher authority who thinks they know what's best for everyone. I think it would have been interesting to see Kirk operating on a higher level, but what we get in the movie is ok.
I also think that there is a missed opportunity with the loss of David. The destruction of the Enterprise could be seen symbolically, as Kirk willing to go as far as sacrificing the big chair, command of a starship, to save his friend. The death of David kind of gets lumped in and included with the sacrifices made to save Spock, but this is where it gets thorny. Returning to the idea of symbolism, we can read a regrettable turning away from the idea of the next generation, with the death of David, in favor of nostalgia with the restoration of Spock. It's one possible reading of the unfolding drama of the movie series. You make a good case for what TUC does to make lemonade out of a lemons, by exploring Kirk's character growth from that tragedy.
On the whole, the first through sixth film is reasonably solid progression, with evidence of alternative interesting narrative pathways that might have been explored peeking out at us. When we add ST Generations, we see a third variation of Kirk going up and down and not learning from his past mistakes, and it's just that one more time that is one too many. We see him make the mistake of going up and come down in TMP. Then he's done it again in TWoK, but that movie kicks off a sequence of events that keep going. Then we think Kirk has achieved a certain amount of peace and will fade away into history in TUC. And Generations mucks it up, by suggesting to us that TUC's ending was just Kirk falling into the same trap again. I think Generations is a breaking point, for me personally. That's the movie were I as a viewer despair over Kirk's self-sabotage, and his journey ends on a depressing note not merely by dying, but worse happens to him before he does.
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