Lower Decks heavily references a lot of stuff, but most of the time the references are overt and pretty much explained, eg when they go over how a crew from another show solved a particular problem in the past. It's certainly better having watched the other shows beforehand, but it's not like you won't understand what's going on. Lower Decks is different to a lot of other Trek shows though in that it's much more light hearted and really doesn't take itself seriously, but it does capture the core Trek charm where all the characters are generally good but faced with difficult and conflicting situations, rather than a lot of shows where the characters just act horribly to one another to create drama.