Exploration is all fun and good, but I don't think it should be treated as an absolute in how Star Trek should be handled. What happens after we've explored a strange new world and encountered new civilizations? What is our responsibility? What can we share with one another and how will that affect the Federation and the said civilization? With TNG and the other series, the episodic feel gives the overall impression that nothing anyone does really matters, like they're wiping their hands clean of the discovery and never bother to mention it again. Voyager was the epidemy of this with it's infamous reset switch.
Ya... But then it's just "Star" and no "Trek". Fact of the matter is, TOS & TNG did sometimes revisit past consequences but I don't want a show that dwells on them. For me Star Trek is "to boldly go where no man has gone before". Period.
As I said, live and let live. That's what Star Trek is to me and if it's something else to you then that's great. Star Trek is HUGE. One can't be expected to love it all but the beauty of it is that because it's so diverse there's something there for everyone.
And after all those years and all those episodes where Picard tried to prove to Q that humanity is not what he thinks they are..... Q wins the argument. And the thing that brings Picard to his senses is not humanity's evolved sense of right and wrong or it's rising to the level of omnipotence, but a human refugee from a point in Earth's history that Picard continuously chastised.
I'm referring only to the series. The TNG movies really lost the spirit of the show and, honestly, Gene's vision.