Getting into a philosophical debate over whether or not to interfere and save pre-warp civilizations is still better than doing 90% of the trout Kirk did. The man once armed a pre-warp culture because the Klingons were arming their enemies (for reasons I don't remember but which almost certainly made zero sense). I mean, it made for an interesting metaphor that's still pretty relevant and was certainly relevant at the time. But could they at least have pretended that there were rules Kirk was supposed to follow?

And unless I'm just drawing a complete and utter blank, I can't think of any times off the top of my head where Picard was outright prepared to let a pre-warp civilization die because of the prime directive. There was once that he got pissed at Data for talking to a kid whose planet was dying when it was plainly a bad idea, but that's a different matter entirely.

But if we're being perfectly honest, having the Prime Directive was the smartest thing they added with TNG. Rules regarding non-interference with other countries and cultures are something we could use more of in the world. Not less.