This is an excellent analysis! I just watched “The Inner Light” for the first time recently, but it has been a while since I’ve seen “Puhoy”; I’ll have to revisit it soon.

I kinda feel like Wes was the enlightened 24th century child who is validated, supported, and taken seriously by people who want him to succeed.

Except for when the writers just have the rest of the bridge crew be mean to him (“shut up, Wesley”). He makes a really good point in “Datalore” (S01E13) when telling Picard that if he was any other officer and not a teenager, his concerns about Lore impersonating Data would have been taken seriously.

We did skip a lot of Season 1, so maybe that helped my perception of him.