The villian's holding does make sense so he was a bit wider than initially assumed. I don't know if I would assume hero has a stronger range on the flop than villian unless hero is flatting QQ, KK, and AA pre. Especially since villian can have the sets than hero can as well. Hero can probably have more k-hi club hands than villian.
So I do think villian was playing this to station and just improved to a spot where he had hero's entire range beaten. I think he is still calling most cards that don't make his hand. He may call on most non club rivers (Maybe as wide as all cards under 10, maybe not the board pairs?), knowing your range contains more clubs and he doesn't block clubs.
Now on the other hand, in retrospect, the 4-bet pre might have worked since I assume villian's hand is near the bottom of his 3 bet range. Even if villian calls, hero is set up to shove the flop with the flush draw and holding on to villian's hand is tougher with that action.
But an interesting hand no less. thanks for sharing.