It depends on the show. If it's a network TV show, I'm okay with several month long breaks. If it's a streaming show, no. I watch the show when they've announced AND scheduled the final season.

Yes, I miss out on the social media chatter while airing, but there's always rewatches going on and I can start new Reddit threads like, "I'm on S2 and ..." to get some feedback.

I'm fine with the fact that it can take years to make some of this great TV, but I too don't have a memory good enough to watch in real time. On rare occasions, I will use YouTube season recaps if I caught something live, but if I know its a show that is likely to have years between seasons, I just wait usually.

Previously, they were handed the worldwide successful brand of Love Island. To me, that should be hard to screw up, but I'm guessing (like you said) that the audience for CBS is just much older. So it only lasted three seasons. My guess is The Real Love Boat was their attempt to develop their own brand along the same lines.

Peacock has the Love Island USA license now so hopefully it continues successfully over there (although I wish it were airing over the airwaves as well).

I know it seemed weird but this is a common tactic for networks. They hope that ratings from the successful shows that bookend its timeslot will spill over. I don't think that strategy works when the only thing the shows have in common is that they are reality TV.

Networks (and streamers) need to recognize that reality TV is a medium and that there are genres within that medium. In this case, Survivor and Amazing Race fall into the "Reality Competition" genre while The Real Love Boat falls into the "Reality Dating/Romance" genre.