I recall that feeling!

I also recall that there were many TOS fans my age for whom the Kirk-Spock-McCoy triumvirate defined Star Trek.

I never thought that way myself but it’s been a dividing line in the franchise from the start.

I love SNW for what it is but I have to say that I was disappointed that Akiva Goldsman — who said he was himself disappointed when he joined Discovery’s writers room in season one to find out that they originally had no intention to include Pike — turned out to be more focused in telling the pre-TOS backstory of the TOS main characters than in telling the story of the Enterprise under Pike’s command.