I don’t think he ever should have left the Enterprise. The show should have stayed true to the concept of a 20 year deep space mission. That way the only sacrifice Riker makes is turning down the Drake before Encounter at Farpoint. He’s making a choice that being second on a prestigious ship on a long mission is better than captain of a minor ship in mostly known space. Plus, early Riker plays it like he’s co-captain, not XO. With the generation ship angle gone Riker seems like a complete idiot and coward turning down ship after ship.
Barring that, I think Picard should have been killed off in BoBW and it should have been the Riker/Shelby show. It was a much better dynamic than what Picard and Riker had at that point.