With that in mind:
Ok, as a casual Star Trek fan (I've seen a chunk of the other series and TNG, some of DS9, a couple episodes of Voyager and all the movies, I think) is this worth watching. Ignore the monetary cost, sheer enjoyment value for a non-Trekkie.
Fair enough, do I have to be familiar (beyond passingly) with the universe?
If you know what the Federation is and who the Klingons are, you're pretty golden. The biggest link to the franchise is that Michael Burnham, the protagonist was raised by Spock's parents, and is a few years older than him.
Speaking as someone who really enjoys the show, it has its ups and downs. It looks great for the most part, but it's pretty clear they're stretching the budget for CG, as space shots especially are quite quick - the Expanse series 1 was much the same. The cast is mostly excellent, though a lot of people argue the Klingon prosthethics impair the performance of the actors in makeup - I disagree (especially after hearing some of them speaking Klingon outside the costumes).
In terms of storytelling, the show moves fast. Most episodes have a done in one A plot, and one or two ongoing B plots from episode to episode. But for the most part these are resolved or change considerably within an episode or two. This show burns through plot at a speed normally reserved for Agents of SHIELD. There are a lot of moments that don't always line up, which leads to a lot of speculation. Some of that speculation appears to be on the nose, and then other parts could be inconsistent writing.
A lot of the show's detractors claim it's not like real Star Trek, but I disagree. The show definitely has a lot of Trek themes - even the overt war elements and morally questionable characters hews close to some elements of Deep Space Nine, and after the show takes a few episodes to set up the core cast and plot elements, there's a run of 4 weeks or so where every episode reworked some classic Trek theme or other.
Overall, I'm of the opinion that Discovery is fun, fits the milieu well, and while it has a long way to go, the first half of series 1 is at least as strong, if not stronger than the first series of all the modern Trek shows. I fully expect it to improve as the years go by. It's also worth noting that TNG had a similar reaction from Trekkies in the 80s, and it wasn't until the end of series 3 where it shook off that negative image in the fanbase. But now eveybody loves it.
