Risa

TNG was a mainstream TV hit - I think it's hard for people who don't remember the 90s to realise that TNG was popular like something like Game of Thrones was popular, it wasn't just fans of the genre who watched it. DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, etc were all very small fry relative to TNG.

So I don't think you're in a minority generally in preferring TNG to DS9 - that's what the viewership numbers say too. My general experience is that DS9 is most popular with hardcore Trek fans who love the way it challenges our expectations as fans of the franchise - typified by those who cite In The Pale Moonlight as their favourite episode. ITPM is a great episode when cast against the backdrop of (at that point) 19 seasons of Roddenberry-influenced Trek, but it's a terrible episode to use to get a non-fan into the franchise because it doesn't show anything that makes Star Trek different to everything else out there; in many ways, the same can be said of DS9's later seasons more generally.