Spot on.
The issue the topic creator points out is unfortunately the main reason Voyager was a lesser quality show than its predecessors. TNG was content to be mostly episodic with gradual evolution of the characters and their back stories (particularly Worf's) over time. DS9 radically, almost gleefully evolved from its original premise-- what was meant to be a largely political show about the Bajorans and Cardassians, where they would explore in reverse by having new aliens come through the wormhole, became Trek's serial war show against races that hadn't even been conceived of at the outset.
Voyager, on the other hand, clung to its original premise desperately in the most frustrating, Gilligan's Island kind of way while never really embracing the story possibilities of doing so. I think the problem was that they were determined to keep it as a TNG clone rather than let it become its own thing like DS9. They wanted it to be episodic, so the story largely reset after each episode save for some character evolution (primarily Seven and the Doctor). Combined with the premise of the show, the result was a whole lot of shows where they almost got back but failed at the last second.
I love Voyager, but it's true that any episode of the show where they think they have a way to get home immediately loses all suspense. As a viewer you know it's not going to happen, so the only thing left to discover is how the plan of the week falls apart.
