Jeffrey Hunter is pretty wooden in the role (as are almost all the actors in The Cage). He comes across as a flat, somewhat listless characters with issues with women. Anson Mount plays the role with a much better sense of the humanity of Pike.
I’d love to see a literal remake but there are scenes that just wouldn’t work (eg. the creepy scene where the young female ensign speaks to him).
I do the same thing. I’ve tried Kavita and Audiobookshelf and ended up just keeping the books on a network share and then accessing them through Calibre. I am sideloading to a Kindle though.