The other ships were at least a hundred years more advanced - and it isn't as though none of them ever got their asses kicked.
There are 8.2 billion people in the world. 8.19 billion of them have never heard of and don't give a fuck about Charlie Kirk. Get over it.

They had the best tech available at the time. How can the ship be the same power as TOS Enterprise or TNG Enterprise?
Remember when the mirror universe people found the ship from the "future" (same period as TOS).
That ship was unstoppable in this time.

Dude. Seriously? This takes place 100 years before TOS.
You're a freaking joke.
Give me a Pepsi Free.

I know most of those words individually.

SLIBERTY 73; This keeps ENT from being like TNG, DP9, & VOY. Although, I wished the NC1 wasn't so dark. I know Paramount saved $ but there was not much 2 c!

They'd be a lot better off if those damn Vulcans were willing to share some of their technology. ( the usual complaint by Trip )
Guess what! I've got a fever, and the only prescription is MORE COWBELL!
-Bruce Dickinson-

There's a great episode when they're refitting the Enterprise after it was all blowed up, start of season 4 somewhere, and Archer was like, "I wish we didn't need all these weapons and armor, but boy it's a necessity." They basically said just having research and exploration ships wasn't really practical, warship or bust.
"I said no camels, that's five camels, can't you count?"

The ships of the federation are also mostly designed around exploration, its only that later ships also know they need a good way of defending themselves and incorporated more security and more powerful weapons. In ENT they address this in season 2 and onward as they learn that space is not just fun and games, theres danger out there they need to be able to handle or atleast try to handle.
"Always two there are , a master and an apprentice"

The Enterprise was designed primarily as a ship for exploration, not for military purposes.
Silent Enemy
(S1E12) delves into this pretty well, and it's mentioned in other episodes.

I don't like that the Enterprise is so weak, but I do like that the show has been consistent about it. The Enterprise is always outgunned and absolutely gets its ass kicked in every confrontation throughout the entire show. It's just a total joke. But it does do a great job of showing how weak Star Fleet was when they first got into the space race.
"I said no camels, that's five camels, can't you count?"

Remember it is an earlier ship with no shields just hull plating.