i never got where people thinking burnham is a mary sue comes from. the whole concept of her character is that she's a cowboy loose cannon without the competence to back it up. it's specifically a subversion of every time our hero breaks the rules and steals The Ship and it ends up being ok because they saved the day or stopped the big war or whatever. the series starts with her trying to do just that, bringing about what she wanted to prevent, and getting arrested for it!