It would have been so easy to just tweak it so the timing barely didn't work, they didn't get the chance to take the shot, and they got all broken up about it, but then it still turned out to preserve the timeline. Same result but without the Starfleet captain actively deciding to let a planet die.

Jessie Gender's vid on this episode was extremely critical, but she also has a video on the first 6 episodes of the season from screeners she got and she claims the rest of them are a lot better.