Assume that all of those cloaks had flaws and were eventually abandoned. Also Stiles was an expert on wartime romulans.
Expert on Romulans period. He would not have ignored pre war battles and combat encounters such as the minefield. Would you have?
Also, the fact that the photonic torps actually have warning labels on them with specific handling instructions indicates that they are more dangerous to deal with than the older spatial torps. Its conceivable that although Starfleet was willing to risk those dangers when an elite, experienced officer like Reed was the one handling the torps, but was less willing to risk using them in a hastily assembled wartime fleet.
It was a WAR they would not have worried much about the danger to their own crews. Even the fact that the best ships carried them would be enough that saying the war was fought with primitive atomic weapons would be a misstatement unlikely to be made. It also ignores the phase cannons as a major weapon.
Don't forget the earlier spatial torpedoes did not have much effect on shields so if the Romulans had shields they would have been useless. If the Andorians and/or the Vulcans fought at the side of Earth the Romulans would have been even more outmatched as they did have shields (and warp 7 ships) as well as even better weapons.
In any case you are merely saying that since the use of the photonic torpedoes that Enterprise showed they had conflicts with the view that the timelines are the same they must not have used them. I say that they had them and had shown a willingness to use them therefore it is to be assumed that they would have continued to use them in the Earth Romulan war and that their existence is evidence for a divergent timeline.
The Romulans in Kirks time changed focused their design priorities towards making the cloak more practical, and developing the plasma torpedo.
I find this a real reach.
First of all it ignores the fact that in addition to the Romulans at least 3 other races were known to use cloaks yet neither Kirk nor Spock was aware that it was even possible.
Second the cloak was practical enough that the Romulans had an entire cloaked minefield and a cloaked ship just sitting on sentry duty in an unoccupied border system watching for intruders. That to me is not what they would have done with an "impractical" design.
Thirdly the mere fact that cloaked ships had been encountered would be enough to include it in Academy teachings - "How to fight an invisible ship 101".
Fourth even a marginal cloak would have been used by the Romulans for such things as commerce raiding and scouting. They would not have abandoned it. The existence of one cloaked minefield implies that there were others and the Earth Alliance would not have forgotten that.
Remember despite the Romulan's lack of speed, it wasn't exactly easy for Kirk to bring down the bird of prey.
If you were the Romulans and your ships were far slower still than your enemies had 100 years ago would you not assume that they had retained if not improved that speed advantage and waited until you had equalized it before starting a new war? It makes no sense, they had to have conveniently forgotten the speed advantage of the prior war just like the Federation conveniently forgot about cloaking devices.
Kirk having difficulty was due to being unaware of the limitations of the weapon the Romulans were using. If he had known of the time delay between shots he could have outrun the plasma and then hit the ship while it rearmed. Spock was already tracking the ship and they could take it down with proximity blasts. In successive engagements knowing the ships limits it would be much easier to handle.
The Voyage to the 1930s dealt with a different opponent so it did not erase the expanse.
It might very well eliminate it. The sphere builders chose to build and work on it based on their ability to see future probabilities. The 1940s attack could easily have eliminated them causing the builders to say "[censored] we can't win now, there is no use going on".
People might have considered Cochrane's words about the borg to be drunk talk, and revisionist historians would have purged it from the record because it portrayed him in an unfavorable light.
But the fact of those talks would not have been lost. They had been published for too many decades. Especially since others would have been aware of the attack on his base and have told stories of those who came to help. Just as science texts when I was in school included mention of various falsified fossils in the human evolutionary tree. They would have been mentioned merely because it was repeated behaviour by Cochrane the man who brought Earth to the stars.
It also ignores the Vulcan SCIENCE SHIP that would have scanned Earth and nearby space and would have found the VERY high tech debris and recorded it and watched for future signs. The same Vulcans who would have been searching their own databases for anything about the Borg and their technology. The nano tech in the debris would have fascinated them.
Relations with the Klingons in Archer's time weren't hostile, but they weren't friendly either. The way in which first contact occurred could very well have prevented a friendly dialogue from forming.
It still conflicts with Picards statement that first contact CAUSED decades of war yet based on first contact in Enterprise they were at peace for ~70 years. I would expect it was events in those decades that caused the war not the events of first contact. It is a direct conflict in the two timelines.
Picard had models of all "federation starships" named Enterprise in his ready room. Making the series pre-federation was meant to skirt the fact that Kirk's Enterprise was the first federation starship to bear the name.
Would he really have ignored the ship that started it all? The ship which had saved Earth and laid the groundwork for the Federation and Starfleet? I think that rather than ignore it he would have given it a place of honor as the ship that started the line, perhaps in its own display case setting it apart. Wouldn't you?
Also, the moment of the federation's birth can be one of those hazy historical debates. Was it the signing of the alliance, or was it the signing of the Federation Charter at a later date.
Deanna wasn't unclear. She quite clearly stated that it would lead to the Federation. The Enterprise was not decommissioned until AFTER the ceremony. If that had been the foundation of the Federation then the NX-01 would have BECOME a Federation ship at that moment and it would have been the 1st Federation Starship Enterprise and therefore unlike your earlier assertion Picard would have had the model in his display case.
I see that you ignored Rikers decision moment in the finale being different than it was in Pegasus. In Pegasus he made it in the Engineering room of the Pegasus and told the Admiral in the finale it was on the Enterprise and he told Deanna that he had made it and was going to talk to Picard. Clearly different events.