Why did Kirk always go with the landing party on Star Trek?

True leaders never ask their crew to do something they wouldn't do themselves

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Kirk was alpha

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Even though I hate people calling other posters "betas", I love this answer.

Kirk was probably THE TV Alpha of his generation.

Look around the room? Is there a red shirt? Yeah? Cool.

He was the star. How boring would it be if he were out of the action every episode?

Lead from the front, baw.

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On Wagon Train, the show that inspired ST

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To be fair, from a "structure" standpoint, this is largely true and Gene did claim this.

But just as big an influence (perhaps bigger) from a plot/content standpoint is Forbidden Planet, which was denied for years but Gene ultimately admitted way later, and Shatner's Kirk had a shite ton in common with Leslie Nielsen's Commander John J. Adams - a dude that led from the absolute front.

So, there's that.

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From the beginning Shatner demanded to be in as many scenes as possible

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For all the crap Shatner catches for overacting (at times, this was needed at times, it was just The Shat being The Shat) he cannot be accused of being lazy - if he had it his way, he would have been in every frame of TOS - much less every scene - and this caused problems. He urged and got rewrites taking scenes and lines from regular and guest cast members. Understandably, this resulted in resentment and tension - resentment and tension that persists to this day, *COUGH* Takei *COUGH*.

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just as big an influence (perhaps bigger) from a plot/content standpoint is Forbidden Planet, which was denied for years but Gene ultimately admitted way later, and Shatner's Kirk had a shite ton in common with Leslie Nielsen's Commander John J. Adams - a dude that led from the absolute front.

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Yes, ST=WT+FP

I left out one b/c I wanted to make my point about the captain/scout format w/o complicating things

Something to remember about WT and ST. Shatner was much younger than Ward Bond, who was happy to stay with the wagons and avoid the plots (and often strenuous stunts or fight scenes). However this did not stop Bond from trying to Shat all over co-star Robert Horton, notably the classic tactic of shooting his own closeups first, and then insisting there wasn't enough time for Horton's. The Bond-Horton feud was highly publicized at the time; I believe it may even have made the cover of TV Guide.

ST was not cast in the usual dynamic of older mentor/younger apprentice (WT, Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, Naked City, etc...). Shatner and Nimoy were born the same year. So Shatner's insistence on being more active in stries is kind of understandable -- the audience may actualy have expected it.

There was a similar situation on an earlier western, Rawhide. The lead was supposed to be Joel McCrea (in his mid 50s) but eventually the role went to Eric Fleming (mid 30s). This changed the format from surrogate father/son with co-star Clint Eastwood to sibling rivalry. And I do mean rivalry -- Eastwood hated Fleming, who was said to be Shatner-level difficult off camera. Perhaps unique among TV shows you can often see this in Eastwood's face, as he wasn't a good enough actor to hide his emotions.

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On Wagon Train, the show that inspired ST

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To be fair, from a "structure" standpoint, this is largely true and Gene did claim this

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Claim, hell -- he tried to sell the show based on its resemblance to Wagon Train

He was the only one who could mind crick entities like Landru and Nomad with really really basic level "logic" so he had to be involved in everything.