Yeah, I loves me some DISCO (and enjoyed Picard, albeit in smaller doses) but as with Lower Decks it's good to get away from everything being so gosh-darned serious, and it means they can do things that DISCO would get absolutely
pummelled for - "ugh, why are they always baring their feelings on this show?" - and get away with it.
Serialised storytelling is a narrative tool like any other but having it season after season after season after season in DISCO, to have this sense of glorious purpose haunt what must be one of the flakiest crews in all of Trekdom, is wearing just a little thin. NWS brings some old-school swagger back to contemporary Trek but as said, it can still address things that affect us here and now without feeling as preachy as other shows. That's the way to do it I guess, to preach at people but not have them realise you're doing it!
PS
Loved it that La'an had no reaction at all to the painful DNA-altering shenanigans in the first ep, so she's totally not an Augment. At all. No sir.
PPS
So they're doing a Star Wars-style ident thingy at the start of Trek shows now? Okey dokey, if you must.