And at this point, the extended crew of the Discovery was thoroughly sidelined: Burnham’s personal relationships took priority over everything else.
This is the part that I’ve never got on well with in Discovery.
In TNG, it’s not a show about Picard, or Riker, or any of the other individuals. It’s a show about the crew. I’ve even seen it said that the actual star of the show is the ship.
Whereas, with Disco, it’s a show about Michael Burnham and everyone else has a bit part. That always felt weird for a Star Trek show. I want to see how the crew works together to solve problems and overcome things with everyone on an equal footing regardless of their rank in the show.
And I think that’s why there was such a warm reception to season 3 of Picard. It brought the crew back together. Picard alone isn’t satisfying enough. What we wanted was him as part of the crew.
Technically they don’t asymptotically go to zero. The minimum yield is the maximum of 20% or 20% of the original yield.
So at worst, an oil field will produce 2 oil/sec, which can still be bumped up by speed modules/beacons as well as mining productivity.
It’s not going to be enough alone for a large base, but I’d say it’s a lot better than almost useless.