I know this is how people in the 80s and 90 imagined the future and a lot of concepts were probably too far fetched for them.
BUT... why arent they using drones to explore planets? why are there not more drone-spaceships? why does enterprise need a crew to begin with? Why is there so little automation? Why so few uses of AI in general?
I am saying this as a star trek the next generation person. I'd also expect them to have full video and sensory streams of any surface mission teams.
1 argument against the use of drones:
See also: any time an AI has been given command of a vessel (except Data, and even then he caused problems a couple times).
"That was the stun setting. This is not. I can reduce this pumping station to a pile of debris."
—Data, the most sophisticated android in the federation, conducting diplomacy
Before that, M5 was one of the worst disasters in Starfleet history.
And although it was probably at least partially covered up control wasn't exactly great.
Please explain, this is a starfleet drone attacking a starfleet ship? Was the drone highjacked or just went rogue on it's own?
Option B
Rogue AI hidden in code.
Thats drone ships going bad from lower decks
And more importantly, the drone MISSED data that revealed the planet was inhabited!
Not Star Trek, but the Three Laws of Robotics is the textbook on why AI and any strict programmatic interpretation of Rules is a flawed goal.