When The Orville came out, I hadn’t watched much Star Trek. Growing up, TNG was the one television show that my parents would break the “no TV at the dinner table” rule for, though it happened rarely enough that I really have no memory of it.
About 20 years ago I watched several episodes of TOS and liked it well enough.
I always wanted to like Star Trek, so ~10 years ago I tried season 1 of TNG, which I now realize is rather universally considered an error; and as a result, I didn’t much care for TNG. But I still wanted to like it, and Star Trek in general! So when I saw The Orville, I decided to give it a shot. And while I agree that the early mix of comedy with more serious material was a bit off-putting, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. This was what TNG was trying to be (I mean, that’s not really fair, but it was my initial sense).
Which then led me to season 3 of TNG, which I started watching last year. And I absolutely love it, and find it overall better than The Orville (which I still really like); but The Orville was basically my gateway to actually enjoying Star Trek.
So maybe I’m coming inside-out from most viewers, but I really like The Orville, and as a bonus, it got me “back” into Star Trek proper.