Voyager could have fared worse, a Cardassian or Klingon ship could have been sucked by the Caretaker into the Delta Quadrant instead of Chakotay and his Maquis crew. I have the suspicion that crew integration with either of these two alternatives would have been much more difficult than the mostly-human Maquis, fortunately led by a commander with Starflleet experience who didn’t lose his principles. It would have forced the writers to pay much more attention to inter-crew conflict and the challenge of upholding federation rules, since Carddies or Klingons have completely separate non-human, non-federation customs and values.