I think what they meant is they choose to assimilate based on the information they know.
That’s why they didn’t assimilate the Kazon (I think that’s cannon, but maybe just a meme), but they didn’t know the issues with Icheb or Future Janeway and it seemed totally safe to assimilate themZ
Funny, but the truth is most warp cores from 2375 have secretly been powered by the suffering of transporter clones of Miles O'Brien made without his knowledge while he taught at the academy. Eventually, when people found out what actually powered ships sometime before the 31st century, O'Brien warp propulsion was retired and dilithium was brought back into use.
Fun Fact: These noises actually comprised much of the background “whir” for TNG. People were used to tuning it out when watching TNG, but were confused when they heard it during one of the DS9 episodes where Alexander came back since they hadn’t heard it for a while.
Loved when LD:Crisis Point: Rise of Vindicta poked fun at this.
Although honestly, moderately enjoy at least the first Abramsverse film - not peak Trek, but fun enough. For a while, I thought Pine was the best Kirk performance in the franchise, but then SNW Kirk grew on me with the La’an episode and I think it’s tied.
I know this topic has been beaten to death online and honestly discussion is pointless, but I’m convinced the Federation could beat the Empire solely based on these two things:
Warp drive travels FTL through what Star Wars would call “realspace”; not only does this provide Federation starships extreme tactical maneuverability (Picard maneuver and the like), but if a starship warped away far enough, the Empire might struggle to pursue with hyperdrive.
The Federation has transporters - I’m not sure imperial shield would be design to protect against e.g someone beaming a bomb (or in dire cases, the warp core) onto a Star Destroyer or whatever.
I’d say the major difficulties are 1) Starfleet has nothing like a tie fighter except runabouts, which aren’t (yet) designed for combat. 2) The Federation might try to negotiate while the Empire does some sort of secret operation.
The larger ones like Worf are $20, which feels pretty typical for that type of collectible.
I don't know about the smaller ones.