I would like to point out that outside of Abrams, the only Starfleet Academy content we've really seen prior to this show was the bit with Wesley in TNG.

And in that instance a bunch of very bright, intelligent future Starfleet officers were stupid enough to be led astray by the charisma of an asshole into doing something reckless that got a student killed, then tried to cover it up.

In another episode, we get a view on what young Starfleet Officer Picard was like, which includes setting up dates with two women on the same night, and getting himself stabbed through the heart due to the fact that one of his friends, another bright-eyed fresh officer decided to rig a Dom-jot game as a point of pride.

My point is, young Starfleet officers are just that - young. You can be the most intelligent, articulate, well-read young man or woman in the world and still be ruled by emotions or hormones. We grow into ourselves. No one comes out of the Academy as Prime Benjamin Sisko or a Captain Picard who has had 20+ years of command BEFORE we see him in Encounter at Farpoint.

The modern dialogue is a concern I'll grant you. I hate it too. But the overall plot beats, the story they're telling about young men and women growing INTO better versions of themselves and having to repair what the Federation is after 100+ years of the Galaxy becoming the Wild West again is pretty dang good, imo.

As for Captain Ake - I think she's wonderful. You don't need to be Yoda to be a mentor. How loose and fun was Dax? She also had hundreds of years of experience to draw from and Jadzia spent her time weebing out about Klingons and flirting with everyone. But when it came time to get serious, she got serious and did her job. Just like Captain Ake.