“Star Trek was always pseudo-Communist”
I don’t know about that ... they had “credits” ... a concept of cash (just not physical money). People were free to live where they wanted. Families seemed to be able to keep things like land that was in their family for generations (Picard had a vineyard in France IIRC). People seemed to be free to choose whatever life they wanted in the Trek universe ... Communism is nothing like that as a state dictates your role based on your abilities.
If anything, I’d say Trek politics was more “Socialism w/o social engineering” or “form of government not yet identified”.
While there original Star Trek was maybe not as overt in Socialism, they had some sort of monetary system.
That was not the case in STTNG. I can remember an episode where Picard told someone that there was no money and people worked only for the benefit of Mankind and the Alliance. Absolute Pure Utopia that cannot and will not ever exist unless you breed all traits out of humans.