There were endless moments in season 3 that would have been solved by reaching out to the progressive Borg collective from the season 2 finale. Not to mention that a few character arcs and character development moments that just seem suspiciously absent in season 3. So, is the entirety of season 2 not cannon or am I missing something?
Same. To me, a sci-fi series or season set in the past just screams, "Somebody is over this shit." Whether that's the actors, writers, or (most likely) the money, somebody didn't want to build a bunch of god-damn sets, or get up at fuck o'clock to go into prosthetics, or pay for any of that nerd nonsense.