NO. That is a RIGHT ANSWER, sir. He was a great Captain, playing the terrible hand he was dealt and doing a remarkable job. A half-finished ship plagued by a mismanaged shipyard's scheduling errors and delays? A skeleton crew? A scheduled shakedown cruise that somehow couldn't be rescheduled? The most famous captain in Starfleet's history aboard? The stunt assignment of a nepo baby helm officer to coincide with that VIP? The fleet monumentally mis-deployed, leaving no backup within range of the capital world of the Federation? A once-in-a-lifetime anomaly threatens some refugees right at that exact moment? And all of this happens while he's got dozens of civilian journalists aboard, documenting the whole thing?

You couldn't stack the deck against a Captain that hard if you tried, unless you made part of the missing crew the entire medical staff-- NO WAIT THEY WERE, AND A RETIRED GUNNER HAD TO BE THE MEDIC. Okay then, how about unless you...I dunno, brought the Borg into the equation and OH WAIT, THAT'S EXACTLY WHY THE EL-AURIANS WERE REFUGEES IN THE FIRST PLACE

It was a miracle that he got anyone off those transport ships, and that the 1701-B made it out losing only one crew member. It was yet another stroke of bad luck that the casualty in question happened to be Kirk.

Harriman was a great Captain and a hero to the fleet. He got lucky in only two ways during that mission: that the VIPs aboard for the trip happened to be highly capable, well-trained leaders willing to roll up their sleeves when they needed to, and that the nepo baby helm officer just happened to also be an excellent pilot.