He also serves as a great character to teach the audience the importance of Starfleet’s command structure. He frequently shows his leadership skills in situations with those under him as well as his sense of duty to his captain above him. He’s the model officer.

The whole back and forth with Deanna, like Picard and Beverly, always seemed formulaic to me - as if they thought they needed a “will they, won’t they” subplot to keep people watching.