I always thought of it as being like how Vulcans say they have no emotions even though they have very strong emotions. They probably just have a strong cultural taboo against lying, but they’re really full of themselves, so they think of it as being unable to lie.
This alternate Kirk was born in space and had never been to Earth, so “he was like a kid in a candy shop, and he got to really just sort of explore it and experience it and bask in it. And I loved that they wrote it that way.”
So is this a different alternate Kirk than the alternate Kirk who was in S1?
Are the SNW Klingons different enough to count as a unique aesthetic? I think they’re about as different from the TNG Klingons as the various movie Klingons are.
He definitely improves as the series goes on. I think most of the hate comes from Season 1 where he’s a genius kid who knows more than all the senior staff of the flagship. He gets a lot better when his stories aren’t just him whining about how no one recognizes how much of a genius he is.