The 20th century people are the meat and potatoes of the episode. The Romulans were the insignificant portion of the story that could have been easily deleted, any vague threat could have been inserted, with no impact on the A story.
I just love the way the 20th century "art of the deal
" businessman sized up the Romulans within seconds, while 24th century "urbane
" Picard sat in his captain chair absolutely clueless.