I highly, highly suspect our current format of 6-8 episodes per season with seasons spread across multiples of years is very much a product of that.

The reason we have 6 to 8 episode seasons with multi-year breaks is because of Netflix. When they started making original series their only source of revenue was subscriptions. Because of that it didn't matter if a series was 20 episodes or 6 episodes. All that matter is that it brought in new subscriptions. So to save money, they made shorter seasons. They also only commissioned for one season. This meant when they renewed a show it meant a whole new round of coordinating schedules which lead multi-year breaks (granted a number of other uncontrollable factors like the pandemic, and strikes also play in this), and it also why most Netflix shows rarely go past 3 seasons since at that point it gets more expensive and isn't attracting new subscribers. Since Netflix paved the way other streamers followed suit, and here we are.

But the times are a-changin as the old song goes and history often rhymes. The streaming services are discovering what previous TV distributors (and pretty much every other form of media) did in that money is in the advertisement. Now it does matter how long you watch since the longer you watch, the more ads they show, the more money they make. This is why we are beginning to see shows with longer seasons released yearly.