Is it because he's always nailing smug weirdo rich fuckbags? Is it the peter falk hard carry? Is it because despite being canonically a cop he does anything but act like a cop?
Is everything downstream of columbo an attempt to erase his legacy as the hound of wealthy sociopaths?
Is Columbo a demigod?
It's definitely not just that the crooks are rich. Not that I watch a ton of cop shows, but I've seen many episodes of shows like Law and Order where rich people get taken down. The writers are smart enough to know that's what people want to see, and it's part of how copaganda works.
I think the thing that makes Columbo feel so different is that every episode is like an intellectual duel between Columbo and the murderer, and the tone is usually pretty light and sometimes comedic. Then there's Columbo himself; I know he's technically a cop but he feels more like he's from the tradition of Holmes or Poirot. He's a detective because he's an eccentric. And the fact that he's seemingly given such a wide berth by the other police makes him feel independent, like Poirot or Holmes, and not part of the police power structure.
Columbo is like sober-and-in-a-stable-marriage Harrier DuBois
OK, so he doesn't take off his pants to make a 3-foot jump when he could have just as easily climbed down like a normal jagoff anywhere in the course of the show, but you know what I mean.