I’ve always felt it was a lot closer to Starship Troopers than most people wanted to believe. You rarely saw colonized planets with good technology. A food replicator and some temporary housing was pretty standard. It seemed like a lot of the “settlers” were more or less subsistence farmers who got a few supplies and protection from the Federation. Sure the major alien homeworlds were fairly advanced, but it’s not like any average citizen got to take a trip to Vulcan. If you wanted your luxury space communism complete with personal quarters and holodeck time that pretty much means joining Star Fleet and excelling to make it on a top tier ship.
I’ve always liked Captain Kirk. It is just too bad William Shatner never really lived up to the persona for real.
