I dunno, having Yar's baby momma show up and drop off a kid would have been a challenge to write in the late 80s / early 90s.

They're actually a republic. The Vedek Assembly has a lot of influence, but they're fully separate from the Provisional Government. And they only have that much influence because the vast majority of the population follows the Bajoran faith. Think of the Assembly like the Vatican - powerful when everyone cares (Pope during the Middle Ages), but virtually powerless when nobody does (Pope now).

My take is that nobody will care if you are bald, but with all their tech you can have as much or as little hair as you want. It's an aesthetic choice that's entirely yours, and no matter what you pick it's not going to really attract attention. I mean, who's going to care about your hair when you live next to a temporally displaced Klingon veterinarian and work with a guy who once got to be Q for a day? And even that is just kind of normal?

and they certainly treated specific items as “valuable” (historical items, weapons, and especially liquor.)

Historical items definitely have non-monetary value. They can't truly be replaced since, no matter how accurate the replica, only the one chair will be the Enterprise-A's captain's chair, for example. Replicators have software restrictions on what you can make with them, so you can't just replicate weapons under normal circumstances, which creates scarcity and gives them value. Starfleet replicators also seem to be restricted from creating alcohol, which means most of the characters we see can only get it on shore leave, which also creates scarcity and therefor value. Alcohol is probably significantly less scarce when sourced through civilian replicators. The ones on DS9 are programmed with Starfleet's restrictions, though.

And if you're a Romulan, especially your allies.

Live action Mariner, too.

The peptalk that Mariner gave T’Lyn was absolutely fantastic. There were so many good moments in this episode, but that is probably my favorite.

"Then I suppose, by the transitive property, that I, too, am 'as Vulcan as a motherfucker.'"

And somehow managed to be the first person in Starfleet history to get in trouble for it. Nobody else on that ship or on any ship ever got in trouble for boinking aliens.

"I don't have a big enough helmet to approve production of moopsy plushes."

And the guys in the comic are wearing TOS uniforms, including the rank stripes on the sleeve cuffs.

I was very skeptical when Lower Decks was announced and didn't watch any until the first season had finished, but it and Strange New Worlds are some of the most fun content to come out of this era of Trek. The whole show is just overflowing with love for the franchise.

It's about interference with non-Federation governments and cultures in general. The Prime Directive forbids mucking about with Romulan politics, for instance. Worf gets away with a lot of things that would violate the Prime Directive in regards to the Klingon Government because he has dual citizenship and is a member of Klingon nobility.

The ban on contact with pre-warp civilizations is also more specifically uncontacted pre-warp civilizations (you can chat with them if they're already buying Romulan ale from the Ferengi because the damage has already been done) and more generally pre-interstellar civilizations (warp drive is the usual way a civilization becomes interstellar, but there are alternative methods).