Super underlooked DS9 character. Basically saved from being a one-off cause they needed an extra person form the episode that Jadzia's old hosts occupied her friends bodies for fun. Then she was kind of just around and working at the bar. Once her relationship with Rom got going she really comes into her own , they're adorable together. Among all the spies and terrorists in the show she's just a straight shooter and a genuinely nice person. Leeta has her shit together. Chase Masterson also advocated for worker ownership of the means of production in an interview.
There's guides for which episodes of TNG and DS9 are "must see", and which to skip. I'd recommend watching the most pared-down option for TNG through S5, then the must-see episodes of DS9 seasons 1 and 2, then all of DS9 starting with season 3.
If you're coming from LD, consider TNG a show about the bridge crew of the most prestigious but also stuffiest ship in Starfleet, played completely straight, and DS9 as a less stuffy bridge crew assigned to an absolute backwater civilian station that suddenly becomes incredibly strategically important, but they don't assign it a new bridge crew, and the weird and/or sleazy alien civilians are still there to cause hijinks.