....because I don't think a third season could surpass the second. Perhaps the final episode was slightly anti-climactic, but every episode gripped me in a way that television rarely does.
True. With the Franka Potente character they found a great antagonist, which created a contrast to the male and sober mastermind of the first season. Everything they could have come up with probably would have taken place between those extremes and felt rather constructed.
Sometimes a story is just told. I can see why the inventor wants to squeeze the last dime out of a concept, as it costs time and money to get to the stage to have just one season on screen and it is even more difficult to get two. Once through that process, it is easy to understand why they want to have five more seasons. That is why I like anthology formats as the best of two worlds: they can reuse the established brand but still can come up with a new cast and story, which matches the tone of the show but does not have to care with previous constellations of characters, to find a place for established audience favourites who have no purpose in the story, or to find ways to out-dramatise the previous season by getting more extreme.
you're onto something there, that the main bread and butter premise of the show is one of it's greatest weaknesses...that the peripheral aspects of the show probably carry it's weak or silly raison d'etre..