You're quite right about Super 8, although if you're arguing that ET is in some sense "superior" I'm afraid we must agree to disagree. ET is an awful, treacly excuse for a film.
As for Star Trek: That's not where that audience is. There has not been any "character development" in Star Trek since 1967.
Unlike most "creative" people in Hollywood, Abrams "gets" science fiction, and that is rare [in fact, I'm trying very hard to think of anyone else in that category except Ridley Scott.] He will do a better job with this franchise than George Lucas.
I’m not ready to concede that he gets science-fiction. I haven’t really seen the evidence of that. I think his sci-fi films have been too derivative and mediocre, although competent to be sure. I think he at least showed improvement in doing action scenes with the newest Trek, which had a couple of impressive-looking sequences.
I agree that Ridley Scott gave us one of the best sci-fi efforts in recent years with Prometheus. I think James Cameron is still the absolute best at doing sci-fi action films.
I think Abrams could direct the film well if someone delivers him a great script. I’d just be afraid given his other works that it’ll lack originality, follow a formula from the previous movies and make too many references to them. That’s already a problem some of the Star Wars sequels have had (notably Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace).
I would have rather seen outside-the-box thinking on choosing a director. Picking the director of Star Trek to do Star Wars is about as unimaginative and unrisky a choice as they could do. Lucas picked Empire and Jedi’s directors not because they had done sci-fi films before. And recently, we saw Kenneth Branagh picked to direct Thor, a very outside-the-box choice that was surprisingly successful.
Or you could dig deeper INSIDE the box and pick Joe Johnston, an old Star Wars effects guy who did a good job directing Captain America and Rocketeer (although not so great on Jurassic Park 3). If I had to pick, I’d rather go with Johnston’s more lighthearted, movie serial-like storytelling style than the unconvincing melodrama seen in the dialogue scenes between Spock and Kirk in the new Trek.
It also bugs me that Abrams reportedly basically had to be begged to sign on to Star Wars after turning the offer down originally. I’d rather have someone who was enthusiastic about getting the job.