DS9 had the deepest bench when it came to characters, a good mix of deadly serious and humor, and broke the Wesley Crusher curse by developing Jake into a real character. It truly developed the Ferengi and Klingons, and had great depth of non Star Fleet characters. Plus competing with B5 didn’t hurt.
Deep Space 9 - The Load Out & Stay - Jackson Browne
https://youtu.be/w5pEUX2KAO8
Deep Space 9 - René Auberjonois Memorial - Who I Was Born To Be - Susan Boyle
https://youtu.be/pBdin_ZYKlU
Deep Space 9 - Black Widows in the Privy - Julia Ecklar
https://youtu.be/fTfzmIxKCcU
B5 to me beats DS9 by a little bit.
I mean yes they were good at their jobs, even brilliant at times but they were not the BEST OF ALL TIME. And they worked at it. And some times, despite their best efforts, failed miserably.
That is the way life is. And when you have characters who are effortlessly successful all the time and wonder aloud why everyone else is so dim... it makes you kind of hate their guts.