In its defence those 2 episodes were just a prologue and it's still difficult at this stage to determine the 'personality' of the show.
There were quite a few instances in the old series where mankind weren't so pure and good, things like when Sisko was willing to commit mass genocide, faked intelligence to bring the Romulans into war and I think this was explored in Discovery, in that Burnham (who compromised her morals) wanted to fire 1st and went against her captain to avoid war and save the crew, where as the rest of starfleet respecting their morals lead to creating a war, I thought it done that pretty well imo as it showed there wasn't a hard line between good and evil.
Also the 'we come in peace' thing with the Klngons and using that as a way of threatening their beliefs and starting a war, I thought that was handled very well. They were'nt portrayed as mindless stereotypical warriors and monstrous, they gave them an inclusive society with motivation that people normally have where they're interested in protecting their freedom. Kind of showing disgust at Starfleet for not willing to defend themselves by lying instead, because the Klingon belief doesn't understand why they wouldn't in the same way that Starfleet belief doesn't understand how firing 1st can be seen as a good thing.
By giving both sides the same motivation It's exploring how even good intentions can become bad when people are entrenched in a certain belief and this is something that the logical thinking Vulcans figured out but an emotional 'pure and good' starfleet couldnt. One could say it's a cultural implosion
To me that's proper Trek anyway.
