Historically, Doctor Who is a history lesson. It was sci-fi for kids that also aimed to teach them something about the world. It was whole raison d'être for the BBC at that time: to educate, entertain, and inform. So from that perspective, the Doctor Who that's just pure sci-fi is the aberration.

I did respect what Chibnall was trying to do with those episodes, but it's just a shame that his writing was so shit.