I’ve been sitting on an essay concept for a few years now, all about how TNG was secretly (and unintentionally) about the end of an era of peace, and the Federation being shocked out of complacency.

The retconned Cardassian war (and to a lesser extent, the Tzenkethi conflicts) is the biggest challenge to address, but their very existence kind of supports the underlying notion that things were never as good as is popularly believed.

All of which is neither here nor there, and I think your point is a good one.