Bridge is fine in my opinion, I like it personally.
What Trek episode have you seen where it addresses transgender issues, or xenophobic aliens on a holy crusade against the galaxy? The most religion we got in Trek was Bajor and they were peaceful.
The show is like 6 episodes in, it's still finding a foothold. As an example, DS9 is my favorite Trek and that shit was almost unwatchable it's first season and a half/two seasons.
As far as Seth, I'm no major fan of the guy but I'm really enjoying his role so far. I like the jokes inserted in here and there when things are getting real because to me it makes it more realistic and usually, it's well done and funny as well. The character he's playing is a guy who is getting his last shot to be a captain and who had been held out of the roll due to this exact type of stuff. He's playing it perfectly imo.