I am reserving judgement for now. I do not like the post-Burn setting, it's too distant from the galaxy I know. I'd really much rather have a Picard-era Academy show. I do not like the ship designs. But, it does feel like live-action Prodigy, I agree, and that's not bad.
Episode 1 had one egregiously bad bit of writing. I'm going to give it a few more episodes.