Heh, I don’t think I agree with either of these takes.

It seems to me like season 1 was very much Michael Chabon’s vision - indeed, they’ve said in interviews that it didn’t bear much resemblance to the original pitch that sold Stewart on the series.

I’ve always felt that Chabon had a lot of great ideas (and to be frank, I still think that first season is the best “Picard” season), but was perhaps too inexperienced to get those ideas implemented in a timely and affordable fashion.

Del Arco not being informed of Hugh’s death is a bit of a non-issue, I think - the guy was a guest star, so it wouldn’t be right to expect them to treat him like a principal cast member.