I never really got the argument against augments (in universe as well as from the writers).
All the humanoids in Star Trek are the result of genetic augmentation anyway.
The whole “eugenic wars” thing always felt like a cop-out because the writers were to afraid to tackle a controversial topic during the actual show and pushed it into the past in a “we already had this discussion” kind of way.
Kurtzman is a hack who constantly writes stories that are not internally consistent and he completely ignores any kind of continuity in movie series. His stuff doesn’t change the setting because he doesn’t understand that it would have that impact. He writes like JJ Abrams directs.