Remember, Star Trek TOS was made in the 60's. Most shows then had 1 to 3 central characters and the rest were supporting characters. After season 1 Scotty took on a more major role. At times he was in the center seat so the story bounced between planet fall and action on the ship. When Next Gen came out in the 80's TV shows became more cast centric. Basically the whole cast became equal for storyline. Think of Battlestar Galactica, Seinfeld, Friends and shows like that. Galactica started it in 78 and it continued from there. Stargate SG1 did the whole cast as equal in storylines also. It seems story arcs and cast use varied as to what the viewers would accept.
As for the new special effects. I like what they did with Trek. They didn't take it up to the level of Next Gen and the other Trek shows. They kept it closer to 60's style but cleaner. Sometimes the Enterprise seems transparent at times. I like the cleaner look. The reason they didn't do the effects like Forbidden Planet, When Worlds Collide and War of the Worlds was budget costs. Movie budgets and TV show budgets are way different so they didn't have a large effects budget where they could get a financial return at the box office.