The thing you gotta keep in mind about Archer is that he's not a
Federation Starfleet captain, but an
Earth Starfleet captain. We all know how the Earth military takes to being attacked, and there are only two crew members that are from different worlds on Enterprise, so Archer's attitude isn't tempered by the thoughts and feelings of 150 races of people. He takes Vulcan and Denobulan advice at times, but Enterprise is a HUMAN ship on a mission for EARTH with nothing else in mind besides retaliation for the Xindi attack.
Now, as Federation captains go, I think Picard has the attitude down cold, with Janeway a close second in that regard. Consider, Voyager is a light cruiser, and she was only supposed to be there 6 weeks, not 7 years. In that respect, Janeway made the best of the situation, but I think Picard or Riker would've handled things a bit differently. Kirk would've gone out of his cotton-pickin mind!
I just don't see a reason for Kirk, why he's so popular. And who's this Sisko guy?