I wasn't trying to negate your opinion or make some counter argument... I was just trying to understand it.
So... I was wondering if you considered any other series in the franchise... or even movies... since they did change a lot even with TMP... as re-boots? JJ verse aside of course.
For me I think its easier to accept radical redesigns and changes if, like you said, the shows move forward within the fictional timeline. Had Disocvery been a sequel to Voyager then the look would of sat a lot better with me. I would technically call each incarnation of Star Trek that radically changed what had come before reboots of some kind. TNG rebooted Star Trek, The Motion Picture/Wrath of Khan rebooted Star Trek - but because they came after each previous incarnation, the redesigns and changes made were easier to except.
Enterprise to a lesser extent again rebooted the franchise and suffers from the same problem as Discovery only to begin to fix it by season 4. Enterprise was 100 years before Kirk and Co. a lot could of happened in that century to explain the visual changes between Enterprise and TOS. When Enterprise eventually did visit the TOS era, it was faithfully recreated and Ive got to say, it didnt look as bad as I think everyone expected the 60s cardboard look to look on screen. I thought the Defiant in the Enterprise S4 Mirror Universe episode looked wonderful.
Dont get me wrong, I thought the Enterprise in Discovery looked fantastic and actually if you take TOS out of the franchise. The look of this Enterprise fits perfectly between the NX01 and the refit Enterprise from TMP and basically thats what Ive decided to do.
TOS is the exception here. TOS was the base prototype model for a franchise that began with TMP. If you discount TOS (as important a show as it might be) then from Enterprise, through Discovery and into TMP, visually it works. But yes, in my opinion Discovery is a reboot, all be it a visual one that very much says this is a Star Trek for 2017/18 rather than this is a period piece and a specific point in the prime timeline canon.
Some might think that redesigning and reimagining the look is very lazy, some may think it needed it because you cant have the same designs from the sixties in a Tv show made in 2017. I think theres a half way point in which the style of TOS could of been properly embraced and modernised without loosing the aesthetic of that show.
But Discovery is its own thing and I think despite being a bit of a jumbled mess plot wise. I cant really fault the production for not being passionate about making something worth our while. It hasnt tanked, its done very very well for itself despite all of the problems its gone through in coming together. The look of the Enterprise in Discovery isnt what Id have chosen for my imaginary 23rd Century Star Trek ship personally but I have to admit, the last 4/5 minutes of Discovery this week had me squealing with joy as the Enterprise came into view and the original Star Trek fanfare played. This is Star Trek guys, retooled, rebooted, revived for a modern TV audience and if youre willing to see TOS as a test bed for a franchise that began with 1979s The Motion Picture, then this series aesthetics does really fit into the gap between Enterprise and The Motion Picture.