Another vote for Nicole as Ezri, here. She had the perfect combination of cute, hot, and adorable, if you ask me.

Kira was also a looker, and Jadzia certainly was as well, but no one tops Ezri. Oddly, there are no mains in any of the other series that rise above "mildly attractive" for me.
I liked Gates and Marina a lot too, but strangely, I thought they looked kinda weird in the early seasons and got more beautiful as the show went on. I think Marina actually looks best in the TNG movies, particularly "First Contact".
While neither Gates nor Marina would be near the top of my list (don't get me wrong, they're not
ugly, just not my type... well, except for season one Troi, who honestly IS kind of ugly; see below), I agree with what you say here, and find it not the
least bit strange. Considering that everything in the first two seasons of TNG - from the uniforms, to the hairdos (
especially Troi's hair, ye gods, what were they thinking), to Worf's sash, to the lighting and film quality - looked positively hideous compared to seasons 3-7... not strange at all.

And I agree that Troi looked her best in the movies starting with FC, and (to a slightly lesser degree, because I think the FC thru NEM hairstyle was her best) in the last season of TNG and GEN. A large part of the reason why I think this is because she had finally begun to wear an actual UNIFORM while on duty, instead of those stupid outfits she paraded around in from seasons 1-5 (and part of 6).