Tried watching this, couldn't get into it

As someone that loves Columbo, I obviously disagree with you. I loved watching him put together the pieces trying to figure out, as I had seen the crime occur, what piece did the killer miss that Columbo finds. I find it to be a nice change of pace from the standard "who did it" mystery where everyone can guess the killer because there are only 10 minutes left in the show and there is only one person left.
While, I will not try to change your mind on the show I will correct one thing in your post: but it was not on every week. It was part of a series where several different detective shows would be on in the same time slot. So you may get only 6 or 7 Columbo episodes a year.

that's the thing with this, the viewer knows who did dunnit all the way through the episode, you're watching Columbo piece together the clues to come to solve what you already know about

classic Columbo is about to leave the room, getting to the door turning round and going "just one other thing" and asking something which is critical to the case and dropping who he's questionning right in it

saw one episode where he noticed that someones shoes had been tied by someone else, because the knot in the shoelaces was the opposite of how the wearer would have done them up (left over right instead of right over left or something)

with the glass eye thing...I dunno, he's always scruffy, I suppose being scruffy means whoever did it has their guard dropped because they aren't expecting much from him

To each their own but I loved the entire series from original run, even the second run.

The smart peasant versus the rich murdering snob routine never got old for me.

All the episodes are the same but quite a few are excellent because of the murder plot and the actors playing the villains.