Shatner hasn't played Kirk in 22 years, and Pine is just starting his career as the new Kirk, so your statement is baseless.
"just starting" is irrelevant. He does not need to play a character for decades to be compared to the actor who brought said character to life--just as Moore did not need his seven films to be compared to Connery out of the gates when Moore made his debut in
Live and Let Die. If Pine has not cut the same cultural path as Kirk after two films, he's not going to, and there's no evidence to suggest the opposite.
TNG was hugely popular in its day, far more popular than TOS ever was in its day.
TNG suffered through two and a half seasons before finding a stronger audience appeal, and while it was first run--and the addition of four largely forgettable movies, TNG was never the cultural juggernaut that was and remains TOS. Like it or not. Post run, unlike TOS, TNG did not rapidly explode into a phenomenon that took on new lives. No network or fanbase was planning and/or calling for the return of TNG (unless you have countering information). Further, when it turned 20, the media largely ignored it--the opposite of the attention paid to TOS' 20th.
On a cultural level with characters, no average person makes casual references to Riker, Picard, Data or Geordi, in the way Shatner's Kirk and other TOS characters are regularly.
WAS popular. Does/will it have a lasting legacy like TOS is the question.
Maurice, I believe that question has been answered, since there's been more than two decades of time since the end of TNG on TV, and there's no legacy.
