Yeah unfortunately nothing works like it did during TNG-era anymore. There's no more syndication, no soft continuity resets, no time to try different things. Every season of a show has to be a 12 hour movie, with every episode integral to the last. You just can't do that for more a handful of seasons before show runs out of steam dramatically. Shows have be in the groove from the start or they're just going to be cancelled.

It's why I don't even bother torrenting any series anymore. It's a failure of the modern enshitified financified mega monopoly dystopia rather than the shows themselves though.