Separating late-period from early period Discovery doesn’t really work. As much as I like the time jump, it’s pretty much the same show, and Burhnam is still Spock’s sister.
Picard is still a relatively hard se-quel, which resonates with the essence of my argument … plus it had a Soong. I’m not sure you can describe S3 as any less nostalgia baiting or digging into established IP than any prequel. Not sure Picard, especially S3, is a convincing example of “Star Trek doesn’t have a default setting”.
Which leaves Lower Decks and Prodigy … which are by my reckoning the two relatively universally appreciated Trek projects since Voyager (at least amongst those that have watched them) … which I would claim is not a coincidence (not that we all have to like the same things).
They’re both animated too which I feel exemplifies the risk-aversion modern Trek production has to “new” projects/characters etc.