I rewatched the first episode of Voyager, and when Neelix first comes aboard the ship, he marvels at the great culture that created it. Tuvok says something along the lines of “The Federation is made up of many cultures. I am Vulcan”. A few scenes later, Neelix calls Tuvok “Mr. Vulcan”, and Tuvok does not correct him. So, yeah, 100% lack of communication on Tuvok’s side. Sure, Neelix hears other people call Tuvok by his proper name, and as some point he understood “Vulcan” is the name of his race. But by then, as Tuvok never corrected him or shown any visible dislike to being called that, he might have come to the conclusion that Tuvok likes it, and thinks of it as a funny nickname.
To be fair, DS9 didn’t really have one of those. But DS9’s strength was that the entire extended cast including minor characters had interesting stories to tell. Voyager on the other hand has characters like Ensign Harry Kim, a character so underserved and underwritten that at one point he’s killed off and replaced with an alternate universe version of himself and the dynamic doesn’t change one iota.
Not technically an alternate universe. Also, the two Voyagers had only deviated from each other by a few hours. O’Brien getting killed off and replaced by his time-displaced future self is weirder, to me.
I think Quark is supposed to be the break-out character, always commenting on the weird HOO MANS.
I’d argue that Odo fits the traditional role more directly, as his confused and sometimes disdainful fascination with solids has a similarly cold and analytical approach to that of Spock and Data. But then, Quark and Odo are essentially two sides of the same coin.
He really wasn’t, Armin was just that good
On DS9 they were all breakout characters. Especially the supporting cast.