I've seen a lot of theories that the writers behind the show don't like Star Trek, or science fiction, or whatever, but I'd like to propose an alternate hypothesis.
That the writers know nothing BUT pop culture genre media.
That their entire lives have been spent discussing the minutia of Star Wars/Trek/LOTR/capeshit on internet sites, writing slash fanfiction with 7of9, and wondering what kind of porn Romulans are into.
That they see everything through a lens of geek culture references because they have little to no experiance at, well, life.
The characters and stories are all tropes we've seen a hundred times before. Raffi's relationship to addiction, Picards aging, the stereotypes, the lives of the Romulan refugees. It's the type of understanding I'd expect from hanging out in a video game themed bar with tech working reddit users wearing Zelda t-shirts, not from people who had actually lived these experiences.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are people on staff with encyclopedic knowledge of every episode, ship, and character.
What they lack is an understanding of what Star Trek means to people. How these stories and characters intersect with our real lives. Why people watch Star Trek in the first place.