I can sympathize with your position. I wasn't there for the older backlashes, but I wouldn't have avoided Enterprise for an instance just because its more or the same or not as good. For one, I was actually amused by the Bush Era America Fuck Yeah militarism that managed to seep into it even if slightly.

That said if I was to act as a filter for all the feedback: there is indeed an undercurrent of cruelty in modern trek. With Discovery it seemed like it was just the writer's inability to imagine an aspirational future. But it slowly mutated to something more malevolent with what I described from Picard and Section 31. Which is why Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks is worth a watch. The cruelty isn't the point there.