I like the show. The only episode I did not like ...but did like PARTS of...was the first full episode with Seven. Crazy Tonal shifts that did not work. it was like two different episodes crammed together.
Part of the problem as I see it is that our understanding of consciousness has expanded quite a bit since the 60's. We originally took it for granted when we were watching as kids that the person stepping off that transporter pad was the same person with the same continuity of consciousness they had when standing on the planet. As great thinkers have tried to figure out how that might be accomplished... it has become clear that it is probably the most unlikely tech in Star Trek.
Copying a consciousness MIGHT be possible. But probably not transferring a consciousness. The greatest hope for that might lie in slowly supplementing a brain with man made tech so that eventually the entire brain is artificial. That way the continuity isn't broken.
So, Star Trek is stuck with a legacy of a 'model of consciousness' between the transporter and other things that today's writers have to honor, but also add to in a new and believable way. It's a tough spot to be in. I choose to just accept it.
People often bring up the transporter thing. Trek has never been consistant with it. The Riker copy episode people will point it out and say... SEE you can make a copy. But as Doctor Crusher said they were ALMOST identical. So that tells me one was indeed a copy and one is the original. Than what about Barclay being conscious during the transporter process??? The man grabbed a damn person caught in the stream mid transport....so that right there shows me they are indeed the same people that enter and leave the transporter and are conscious during...
But anyhow Picard is now a copy. Despite how people are trying to say its not true. I wish they would have waited to kill Picard off in season 3...not episode 1p. lol. It was a stupid plot point especially the excuse for leaving him with his human physical traits and aging....