I don’t disagree, and I suppose captains get a LOT of leeway with how they run their ships. What I’m actually talking about is
spoilerthe part where Spock has the TOS lines being jarring.
I think in that case they let “easter eggs” for fans get in the way of coherently telling the story they wanted to tell. At least with your (and my) take -
spoilerhow do you get that Spock? It seems like the divergence would have left Spock more like he is now with Pikes leadership style, vs the apparent changes to TOS with Kirks style.