For me Voyager was better than TNG for it didn't have the pretentious holier-than-thou attitude in the show and with TNG fans. For all of VOY faults at least Janeway and crew didn't sit on their thumbs letting people to species die when they can try to save some of them.
Until Star Trek shows us why the Prime Directive must be obeyed above all else instead of suggestive guideline back in TOS, fuck the Prime Directive. Definitively would like a movie, mini or limited series showing us where, why, how and who the Federation made contact with and the resulting lesson learned being, no contact with pre-warp species as they will fuck the Federation over good and hard.
Enterprise touched on this by providing an example of two sentient pre-warp species that inhabited one planet.
The dominant species basically corralled the lesser species as a sort of subservient race. However, both were happy with this arrangement as the dominant species cared for and provided all the lesser species needs if they had any.
The ultimate focal point of the episode is that the dominant species was dying out due a genetic disorder that was ravaging their whole race. The death of the dominant species would have opened up an avenue for the lesser species to rise and become the dominant species on the planet.
Furthermore, it was shown that the lesser species had the capability both genetically and intellectually to surpass the dominant race if they were only allowed to do so. Which they obviously are not when they have no challenge and everything is provided for them by the dominant species.
Now, the Enterprise could provide a cure for this genetic disorder or hand over warp technology so the dominant species could go and find others who will give them the cure, but the crew is split on whether they should hand anything over for obvious reasons.
It ends with a middle ground solution that I won't go into. But, the core idea of the prime directive is not to influence a society that is not capable of warp travel due to such influence causing unforeseen repercussions that could drastically harm other species (be they native or alien to the planet) or the planet's natural habitat. The logic being that if a species or a member of a species is meant to die from "natural" (in the most literal sense of the word) causes that are not caused or influenced by other sentient alien stellar races then it is out of the federations hands to interfere with nature.
If they had a warp drive, then yeah the federation would be all up in that because at that point a species is seen as mature enough to no longer be protected from the rest of the galaxy and accept the consequences. Much like a child turning into an adult at the age of 18 (at least in America) they are now held responsible for their actions and can make decisions on their own.
Now, the entire history of trek has plenty of examples of captains bending or even breaking these rules precisely because there are always exceptions to any rule. It has led to positive and, more importantly, negative outcomes on enough occasions to warrant it being a standard rule however.
With that said, I do agree that TNG does some pretty retarded grandstanding. Picard wanted to save a crystalline being that ate all life on a planet because it was "natural" for fucks sake.