Have you ever considered that the Prime Directive is not only not ethical, but also illogical, and perhaps morally indefensible?
Getting horribly murdered was by far the most interesting thing to ever happen to Icheb. If anything, they should resurrect him and do it again.
CBS/Paramount have been treating it as canon for over a decade, that ship has pretty much sailed.
The Enterprise canonically carries an inflatable balloon of itself, and why would you want it any other way?
Not too fragile…
Even worse, he was just re-using Kirk’s old password!
Does anyone at the Institute know you’re missing?