To be honest, the conclusion just fell a little short. It was good, but a bit rushed. Fellow ST Spin-off Deep Space went all in on war (with the Dominion). Too much war. In order to REALLY addict me to Next Generation, Picard would have had to remain Locutus of Borg from here on. At least for a while. Return sporadically in single episodes. Not a permanent war story ark, like in DS9. More like Sela, Tasha Yar's Romulan daughter. Picture Locutus become a foe to deal with. He changes the Borg. New strategies. Whenever you see Locutus, unexpectedly, every 10 episodes, full screen, the viewer's blood freezes. And if Locutus returns to Starfleet, then not the very next episode, but maybe 2 seasons later. Live with a Borg cube in your Federation for a while. See what it reasonably would change in Starfleet. The Federation starts cloaking all its ships (like in DS9), as one possible result. Evacuations of whole planets all the time could become the new default. And/or targeted espionage onto Borg cubes. Don't just waste an enemy that was developed so carefully. No need to follow that extended war in every episode, but some chances were missed. Have the crew's faces drop on several further Locutus appearances. That would have been the extra mile. Star Trek: Voyager later did great in catching up.