I adore how campy this looks, but I'm so frustrated by the constant shoehorning of Kirk into the show. Maybe if the performance were interesting or there was something compelling about him it would be different, but he just seems to drag down the show whenever he appears (outside of the episode with La'an, but really, she was doing all of the work in that one).
I agree he’s not the best Captain Kirk, but I did enjoy his performance in the time travel episode (might have just been the writing and La’an performance like you said, though).
Now what we need is more George Samuel leaving crumbs and annoying Spock energy. I mean, the dude’s only got 8 years or so live… Give our boy some screen time!
I have no beef with Paul Wesley - young Kirk was described as "a stack of books with legs" back in TOS, and I think that comes through in the performance.