partially sarcastic, Tasha Yar as a character had big potential and was intended to be cooler but they started off on the wrong foot, never corrected, and never developed her.
The wikipedia rabbit hole for Tasha Yar and her actor Denise Crosby is an interesting one. Some of the creators thought she was the most interesting character in the “show bible” so maybe it was the episode writers that missed the message and gave her such empty stories and flubbed what could have been a cool character. Either way it would have been interesting to see a woman in the role of chief of security and another big leap in the progressiveness of star trek.
TOS had post cold war russians, and showed that black people are part of the future. Aside from briefly having a woman in charge of security I can’t think of any progressive traits on TNG other than negotiating and 1st contact (are Picard’s bag and) better that fighting. Don’t get me wrong through I still hold a special place for TNG, just finished a rewatch not too long ago, but on second-ish watch, with the rose tinted glasses off, it is disappointing they had an opportunity to make a statement about a brighter, freer, more equitable future but ended up going with rape gangs and forced marriage (oh and fucking Data) instead.
So yeah the character ended up weak but was originally intended to be a bad ass. missed opportunity for something cooler and bigger.