Well, if ever there was a topic for which the phrase "Your mileage may vary..." was invented...
I don't envy the Star Trek gaggle their job of trying to please such a vast and diverse audience. They usually managed to balance the baldly atrocious with the occasionally sublime, in my opinion. I can't think of a "jumped the shark" episode that they haven't eventually made up for. For all of the embarrassingly bad moments ("Spock's Brain", Next Gen's second season doctor, Star Trek V, Voyager's episode in which Paris and Janeway "devolve" into giant salamanders, Enterprise's frequent gratuitous "decon chamber" scenes), there have also been moments that restored my Sense of Wonder. Picard's interrogation at the hands of his Cardassian captor, Data's (and later, the Voyager EMH's) exploration of the meaning of humanity, Sisko's alternate reality as a black sci-fi writer in the 1950's, and the courageous reflection of post-9/11 American politics on Enterprise all conspired to keep me from writing the franchise off as "mere marketing crap".
Of course, I'm still irked that their brand-name success has ruined the market for treasures like "Firefly". I'm hoping that the "Escape Pod" model will eventually take hold in the media market as digital production becomes cheaper. When a guy like Joss Whedon can produce something without the interference from FOX lawyers and marketing experts, and release it directly to the fanbase, we won't have to have these "wish the Man didn't ruin our fun" discussions!
Do I feel bad about putting the gorram suits out of business? Nope!