I'm not sure it was a mistake to stop the long story arcs. I don't really know how I feel about that yet. I think that you'll see at the end of the fifth season and into the sixth season that there is a little bit more of an ongoing story now. I hope you'll like it. I t's much easier to get a human and put them in make-up and costume.
Computer images are very expensive to create.
It's true, all of those things are very expensive. I think that Rick Berman has always tried to keep Gene's focus going throughout all those years since Gene passed away. But I think they are trying to do new things. So I'm sure that there are some things that Gene would have done differently. Gene may have changed with the times, too.