This!! Science fiction is always about the real world, no matter what the setting.
Uhura the Communications Officer was a thing in TOS because radiomen were a big deal in WW2. By the time TNG came along, the 'radioman' wasn't something contemporary audiences would relate to.
reak Uncle, 100%, far more trustworthy in a crisis than Shiny, Well-Groomed Loner. He was really hateful to the space ghost when he first found out she wanted to Bev him.
Yes. He would have gotten some consensual noncorporeal lovin' and saved the Federation Commissioner, too. Or at least figured out a way to get her safely on her way to therapy. There would have been 99% less whining, if Freak Uncle had been there.