Forget about all the politics involved, just imagine getting thirty-one regular people to agree on anything. To get Turkey on board with letting Finland join cost the US a tranch of F16 fighter jets and probably more. I don’t know how we bought off Hungary. But some of Ukraine’s NATO neighbors likely will never sign off on Ukraine’s joining for their own political reasons.
I grew up in the Cold War era and served in it, was a believer in NATO and SEATO, but no more.
I would like to believe the assessment you offered, but I admit, I am too jaded now to believe the realistic constructive national intentions of various countries will win out over political orchestration to achieve violent ends.
But I will still hope.