Exactly. There is painfully little character development done throughout TNG. At the end of the final season the characters are still basically the same person who they were at the start. Picard is a little softer, Data is a little closer to being a person, Worf is still just Worf, Geordi is arguably a creepier person, Riker did not change like at all either, Deanna and Beverly also didn’t get development so much as a wardrobe. Basically the person with the most character development was Yar who died and then got resurrected through time shenanigans before forced into sexual slavery to a Romulan until she died. That’s not exactly… impressive. I love TNG and I love all the stories and the morals it tells but in todays TV atmosphere it is impossible to properly replicate that. Even SNW keeps a consistent plot throughout all the episodes and limits it to half of what TNG was dropping per year.
Then you look at Deep Space 9. This show is constantly praised by people left right and center. Why? Character development, a consistent plot, a serialized story and consequences that carry over from episode to episode instead of being immediately forgotten or relegated to a simple reference with a background prop. It is insane to me that so many people hate the newer Trek iterations for being “too dark” and “focusing too much on story” when that’s just Deep Space 9. An incredibly dark show that covers some seriously heavy subject material and has a consistent story that affects everything else around it.