That's the thing. I never once had any doubt they'd get home. I got a little impatient with the letters episodes. Whilst its intuitive and necessary to include such scenes; the certainty I had that they'd get home; often meant those kinda scenes was a turbulence to get through.
And that's a minor point btw -- as I like the show. But there's little sense of real urgency that could defy the TNG model. Voyager perhaps added something to the TNG template but didn't defy the mould.
However I grant the point made by others on this thread about the Maquis and Starfleet not being at each others throats. You need Janeway to have to rescued a crew of Cardassians whom had gotten on the wrongside of a Maquis raider to raise the intraship tension to truly critical levels.
Whilst we as the audience might never doubt they would get home, how would we react if we as the audience were in their situation? i.e. we place ourselves into the story.