the fact that this is the worst-merchandised franchise in the world is incredibly annoying

I can’t agree with this more. It’s insane the disparity between ST merch and Star Wars merch. It’s like Trek stuff is always the “Wish version” of what the people behind Star Wars are putting out. Lego is a good example, they’ve put out hundreds of Star Wars sets over decades while Star Trek is relegated to the shitty knockoff Lego-clone companies who think they can charge as much as Lego for what they offer.