Yep … completely agree and I’ve said the same before. Whether the producers liked it or not, the opening and its vibe is part of Trek. If you want to do a different kind of show … cool … but you’ve gotta meet fans somewhere in the middle. Starting the whole thing off with a complete undoing of the whole vibe of the thing is not the right way to meet fans in the middle.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but when I first saw enterprise, I honestly thought it was a cheap rip off that was bound to get sued, and the song was a huuuuge part in the that impression. “No Star Trek would start with that song, this is some weird corporatised shit”.
And the effect of that … to this day, even though I didn’t mind ENT S4, I don’t count it as part of (my) Trek (it also did particularly bad on the bechdel test). And to this day, even with new-Trek, we’re struggling to get new series that push Trek forward without being nostalgia driven, a reboot, prequel or maybe even all of the above (looking at you SNW!). Lower Decks, in this way, really does stand out (Prodigy too, though I haven’t seen it).