I mentioned I rewatched Lost which had 20 some episodes in S1 alone. Every character got ample time to develop so that when the big things started happening we had so much invested in everyone that it all mattered. Same thing with DS9. While technically a violation of Roddenberry, we got so many episodes on a single character where we saw them trying to always do the right thing, that it all felt justified.
with this being 10 episodes and it's all about the end of the world, there is no time for these new characters to mean anything to us. We are being told Raffi matters to Picard, or Elnor, but not given the substance for it to resonate. The emotional scenes are falling flat. Pay attention to a Raffi/Picard scene in E9, you'll know which one, and tell me it doesn't feel really off.