TNG/Gene`s vision is definitely one that sometimes mistakes competence porn with living for anything but “work”. Excellence is not just a consequence of utopia but an explicit goal of every human.

When you compare that to Sisko`s father who was just happy to live a chill life as a restaurant owner, of course striving his best, but clearly also explicitly saying serving the military Starfleet isn’t the only way to have a fulfilling life.

You’re correct and I’d even think at some point that mediocrity should have lead to Picard quitting Starfleet not enduring however many years of boredom.

Which is also so weird when you consider this(Tapestry) comes after The Inner Light which was also about a fulfilling life completely outside of the Federation/Starfleet standards, perhaps they didn’t want to go into that direction again even though this should have been a more logical conclusion?