Season 4 got into some really weird stuff with Witches and power stones that came out of left field. The first three seasons were straight up a remix of pre and post crisis Clark Kent in Smallville mythology . The show rebounded in 5 because it felt like we were heading somewhere...then 6 the brakes halted again and we also got the whole Lana and Lex soap opera involving a falsified pregnancy and cloning, although the last few episodes of 7 were good.
Like you Season 8-10 felt like a different animal and it was basically Lois and Clark 2.0