I'm old enough to recall when Data was considered an android Spock by some.

Actually, the "Temporal Cold War" figured into much of the first two seasons. (We never did find out the identity of "Future Guy", the mysterious figure ordering the Suliban around.) Earth wasn't attacked by the Xindi until the end of Season 2, and Season 3 was almost entirely "We gotta' save the Earth."

Over the course of Season 3 it was revealed the Xindi were misled into attacking Earth by another faction in the TCW. I enjoyed the cliffhanger nature of Season Three, and even when they got dragged back into the TCW at season's end again, with World War II being altered by evil aliens helping Germany. Everything's better with Space Nazis. ;)

It wasn't out of character for Trek to comment on real world events. TOS addressed Vietnam and race relations back in the day. Even the Klingons were once considered an analogy to the Russians. A lot of storylines on DS9 are actually more topical today than when the series originally aired. I'm not sure you could even do a character like Major Kira today.