I suppose it's the natural result of wanting to keep the show on as long as possible, when you've only got one good idea for the story arc. You need a lot of filler.
I'd like to see more shows done in the style of Babylon 5, where the creator had the whole 5 years written out from day 1. There was very little in the show that felt like filler or treading water.
Which also may explain why books are being brought to TV more frequently these days. But, TV showrunners have a bad habit of taking a good novel and totally mangling it in the translation to TV, so it's not a guaranteed win.
Except those waters aren't Chinese territory, which is the entire point of doing freedom of navigation cruises....to remind them of that fact
The recent China-Russia operation was also in international waters, and you'll notice it's only a handful of senators making a stink about it to get some publicity, the military was pretty clear that it wasn't a problem. They just shadow it like they always do.