As I later found out, Abrams was legally obliged to deviate from the canon Trek universe. It’s why it and ALL the present “Trek” (everything after ST: Enterprise) is the unrecognizable horror that it is.
Apparently, even the new Picard series is also legally required to drastically deviate from TNG. Because of this, it’s also why they’re having an awful time getting it off the ground (and the merchandising issue with changing the designs of everything we know, which has already proven a fiasco. If you can’t make $$ off of merchandise, you have a huge problem on your hands. The fans don’t want this Faux Trek/STD stuff).
They have some videos on the subject on Youtube, it explains this nightmarish mess and why so many of us fans cried out that the stuff of the last decade wasn’t canon (which was initially denied) has now all but been acknowledged.
Not that horrible. Benedict Cumberbatch played Kahn and Karl Urban played McCoy.