@wheeldawg @joe DIS had really bad scripts which appear to have been forced after a certain pattern. For DIS its clear that certain topics had to be extremely present. It never felt smooth or pleasant to watch the episodes (at least for me). I always felt being forced to notice these certain topics at any cost. For PIC its more subtle. The first two seasons could have been condensed to max 4 episodes. It appeared like the authors had no ideas & tried to stretch the story as much as possible.
@ValueSubtracted I don’t think so, the canon has a lot links to possible stories without starfleet. i would find stories about living under the Dominion interesting.