How often did you see any Andorian in a TNG-era show?

Exactly. ENT and TOS are the worst at being inconsistent with distances, but then TOS was never meant to create a whole, continuous universe that fans like us would be analyzing with the equivalent of an electron microscope years later. In TOS, the Enterprise regularly travels the radius of the galaxy no problem. ENT even placed Qo'nos within a few light years of Earth if you look at travel time in just the first episode. But yeah, it's definitely determined by the writers and what plot they want to use, figures be damned.

The plot drive is far faster than warp, slipstream, or transwarp

This update was very cool. The new Data coming back, Nagus Rom making free education, it is a very good read.