Deep Space Nine is so important that everything comes to it.
I thought most of the episodes of season 1 were too similar to scenarios we had seen on TNG. The main highlight in that season was its characters.
Characters on Deep Space Nine still visited new planets, discovered new aliens, etc. I wouldn't say they were stuck on a space station twiddling their thumbs either. I think it's more of a character driven show. To me, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a soap.
A couple of things here.
I fully agree that season 1 was too much like TNG. I guess it makes sense, since TNG was a successful formula that seemed worth following at first...but once DS9 found it's own voice, it quickly strayed from the TNG path - IMO, the best 'fork in the road' Star Trek ever took. Much of the criticism leveled at Voyager, for example, is that it comes off as 'TNG-Lite'. Might it have been better if it followed a path toward it's own fully unique voice (as was promised in the original premise)? We will never know. But it's certainly a possibility.
I don't know - seems like a lot of TV viewers LIKE watching what is essentially the same story over and over and over and over and OVER. I mean, how many seasons was Law & Order on?
And how many CSIs are there? - those stories are all the same - only the background scenery is different!
Stargate too, was a lot this way. I liked Stargate...but for as many seasons as that show was on, we really never learned all that much about even the main characters, outside of their work at SGC. Instead, we have an 'enemy of the season' as the background arc...and then many 'enemies of the week' as they explore all these planets. For the most part, fairly formulaic.
I'm glad DS9 went it's own way. And that someone in the Trek 'Verse had the guts to do a serialized show that took on something as ambitious as a multiple season-long arc that involved the entire AQ!
I'm also really glad that there was the level of character development that there was. By the end of this show, many of the secondary characters such as Dukat, Damar, Garak, Weyoun, Martok, Winn, and Nog ended up being more fully developed than many of the main characters on some of the other Trek shows! And for me, that is a huge plus, because you grow to really care about what happens to them. Much more so than some of the other Trek characters.
But simply put, there is no reason for me to write another advisory post regarding following the rules, etc. Two friendlies are sufficient to make clear to all what sort of behavior is required. 
Felt like it was 'back to normal' around here again. 
) I found them great as well, just not as much as S4+
