I remember Sybok vividly, I saw ST V in the movie theater. And look, weakest of the OT films as it is, I didn't outright hate the movie not Sybok. But the way he was put into the world felt so shoehorned that it doesn't work. The same is the case of Burnham being Sarek's ward. Now, the absolute only way this works is if by season's end, Burnham is dead. Then that explains her never being alluded to to a slightly more palatable degree. Sarek never cared for Burnham nor Sybok, never mentioned them in TOS nor TMP, because they didn't exist. Now all of sudden there they are and then only as long as you watch those specific films. You can't go back to TOS and magically have Sarek say: "My children" or "Your sister/brother" to Spock in "Journey to Babel".
That's continuity, like most of the biggest problems in the show. But the awesomification of Burnham is another problem..."She's excellent at this", "She's top officer that"...no, she's not. She's not even Barclay level competent. And having others marvel at her while she continues to make bad decisions or be rather unremarkable make the character just plain unlikable. I'm not rooting for Burnham and I'm sure that's not the intent the series was supposed to have. At this point focus on Saru or even Yeoman Sparkles (The bubbly redhead), at least I don't groan when they come onscreen.
If you want the freedom to create new things during already established history in the canon, do a JJ, make a whole new reality for it, then we can say, cool, it doesn't affect canon. Otherwise as Majestic has said, make it a brand new universe that is not ST.
We NEED good sci-fi and it doesn't need to be an existing brand in order to be worthy. The Expanse is a fairly interesting show which has surprisingly held its own amidst the horrible stream of low budget movies and series that have plagued Syfy after its conversion from the much superior Sci-Fi Channel. Ah the years when they had originality and took chances!!! Farscape, Stargate SG-1, Dune Miniseries, Battlestar Galactica, good God at least they tried to go for quality back then, even their reruns were B5, Voyager, Firefly. Good stuff. Now it's just Mega-Cr0c vs Dino Shark, Sharknado 7, Z-Nation and Winona Earp, dear God why?
I agree that Sonequa can't carry the series. She is by no means a bad actress, she was fine in TWD, but she is not a fit for series lead or this type of character. She can't sell a tortured soul that's flawed and still make me care about her. Now, speaking of B5, if Claudia Christian (Ivanova) circa 1997 had been playing Burnham, she would have nailed it and I'd be glued to the series. She could sell gravitas, vulnerability, determination, tenderness and humor. But Sonequa, no, sorry, she can't sell everything the character needs, especially next to Jason Isaac's superior Lorca. He is a very intriguing character and has an actor up to par for the portrayal.
B5 is also one of my favorite series of all time, I've been re-watching the whole thing and man, yeah, the writing is so good. The acting, the crew, everything about it was perfect. I used to hate it until I gave it a chance, they showed it twice a week (rerun and new ep) in the mid-90s. I saw "A Distant Star" as my first episode (That was the rerun) and then the new episode was "Severed Dreams" that same week, after that I was hooked and went back and saw the whole thing. That was serialized storytelling.
I think the best thing for STD to do is go back to the drawing board for season 2. Clear the current crew, and maybe the ship, and start from scratch. If it's still before TOS Kirk then make it fit with that. If you're gonna serialize, then stick to your main arc with minor subplots peppered for character development. If you're going back to the exploration of the week, then stick to that, with the occasional 2 parter. But do not open a season long arc and then leave huge gaps in events while we make jolly romps exploring the galaxy, only occasionally give us some random shootout episode to remind us "There's a massive war going on remember?". And jeez, give me a more interesting crew and, especially, a better lead.