If I did misread your post then I'll certainly apologize, I'm not just trying to be a dick.
As for Starmer right now though its important to realize that it doesn't really matter what principled stands he takes at the moment. That might be uncomfortable reading, but its true. Right now Labour don't win any points based on what they actually do, they win points by the Tories fecking up and losing them. Starmers only job right now is to look like a genuine potential national leader and to show Johnson up at PMQs each week.
Considering what a horrible, horrible position Labour were in after the last election, we have to be pragmatic about this stuff. It's going to be 4 years before Labour are up in front of the electorate. In the meantime 90% of the public will never even know or care about the details of Labour's political stances at the moment. It simply doesn't matter that much. What does matter is avoiding getting sucked into a pointless position (bearing in mind that Labour have no power to actually change anything or even stop the Tories from changing anything) which could result in the media turning on them and the national media narrative becoming once again anti-Labour.
What Starmer is doing is working. The Tories are reeling and looking abysmal. As Napoleon said 'Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake'.
A few points:
1. To be fair he is looking like a genuine future British PM by completely ignoring the state starving to death Mercy Baguma. I guess the black lives moment has passed (also Corbyn's Labour wasn't great on asylum issues either and the EU is catastrophic on it)
2. Literally no one cares about PMQs. It doesn't matter in the slightest. Corbyn beat Johnson regularly and comfortably at PMQs and yet had terrible personal polling versus him
3. Whatever you think of Corbyn and his politics it undeniably shifted the narrative around austerity and government spending. The gamble Starmer's team are taking is that you don't attempt to shift politics at all whilst in opposition and this makes you more electable. But the counter-factual is that if Labour lose the next election they will have done sweet fa to shift politics whatsoever.
4. On top of this, there is no indication that the politics Starmer's Labour want is good for the nation at large. Every indication thus far is that it's a project built entirely around appealing to the voters in Northern seats that went Labour->UKIP->Tory. Especially turning up the nationalism, patriotism and small-c conservatism dial. This would be just about bearable if it was a means to getting voters that FPTP necessitates winning onside for a radical project. E.g. Corbynism without the (correct) anti-imperialism. But there is no evidence this is a subterfuge or a cover for anything. This is all that it is. Ambitious CO2 targets by 2030? Hmm lets wait and see how that polls with swing voters in Dudley.
5. Pointless positions like opposing wearing masks in schools until the Conservatives support wearing masks in schools, at which point Labour supports it too?
6. The media narrative is not aggressively anti-Labour because Labour is not a threat to those that control/influence it any more. This goes across the board. Now that Labour is not offering radical change The Guardian and Observer can go back to supporting it and pretending they do.
7. Reeling to a steady 40% in the polls