I can see the appeal of the warp-refitted (or warp-driven) era, in terms of how diverse the various Alpha navies were at the time; both the Feds and ISC still had plenty of pre-unified planetary fleet ...
I am also someone who has gotten into FC directly from the TV series and never played SFB (so pardon my ignorance of the greater Star Fleet Universe). Even though I am also more interested in new emp ...