IIRC Roddenberry was quite obsessed with the sexy alien dames during his TNG years. Part of the reason they were so keen to get him outta there. Fontana was straight baller tho, and yes, she gave us Sarek.
Yeah, Roddenberry did many fine things, but his inclusion of women in the Star Trek universe seemed to be more about making space "sexy" than envisioning a future where women were the social equals of men. Even the
Next Generation and Deep Space 9, had significantly more male regulars and it mindlessly defaulted to our current social norms, like women (however accomplished) becoming "Mrs. their husband" etc. They also seemed especially fond of killing off interesting female characters (especially if they got romantically involved with Worf).
I think DC Fontana had a lot to do with the best things about the show.
One thing about the earlier Star Treks I liked, though, was their envisioning of an optimistic future, where humans went into space to explore and to learn, not to conquer. And even with the more hostile alien species, they were always striving for peace and better understanding.
I lost interest in the franchise when it was rebooted as a sort of militaristic, "grimdark" version of the original. There's already plenty of militaristic, grimdark SF and F out there, so why did they have to ruin the sweetness at the core of Star Trek? What is it about our times that no one even wants to fantasize about a better future anymore?