Yeah I love the show after but ds9 vs any other shows is a depth vs breath. Ds9 had some of the most complex characters in all of star trek. Because of that push and pull between the writers and Berman. Those first few seasons let you do character driven stories and flesh out the world. Then that paid off in dividends in the later seasons when they starting doing plot driven serial stories. Plus they were not to drop a epistolic story right in the middle of a longer story arc. To give the audience a breather/ palette cleanser.

Unlike today where each season is a bloated movie where the plot is find the mcguffin that will save the universe every season. Like a crappy railroaded D&D campaign.