I would love a "dark" story based around smuggling during the dominion war. I always envisioned an entire ship's interior as a holodeck that would change appearances when they were boarded by different factions.
Harvesting tech from scuttled ships after conflicts. Just jury-rigged holoprojectors that glitch out every once in a while and send the entire crew to holo-Risa.
I feel like those producers, writers, and directors heard a lot of “Deep Space Nine is the best Trek because it wasn’t afraid to be dark and portray violence and loss on a galactic scale.” and they took all the wrong lessons from it.
Oh, woe upon those who wish to see their favorite series grow and evolve! What do we say to those who want modern story telling and deep characterization? No! Give me my milquetoast Trek! I don't want to feel things!
I never had a problem feeling things with the episodic series. Nor was there a lack of deeper character development (outside of a few characters; which still happens in serialized content anyway) or story-telling. It just didn't take an entire season to tell a single (or even a B story along with the main plot), coherent story. Nor did it have such a bleak and pessimistic outlook. I want to feel good after an episode; not be reminded of reality. If I wanted to embrace reality, I wouldn't be watching Star Trek.
Grimdark doesn't mean ultraviolence or meaningless violence. Some of the greatest episodes of TNG are "grimdark", like Yersterday's Enterprise, Best of Both Worlds, and Chain of Command. They don't all have to be hopeful or optimistic. Gripping stories often involve conflict and heavy themes.
Netflix scopped them up and will stream the completed season 2. Whether or not they give it a 3rd is up to them and we know their track record of shows that make it past 2.