I noticed this while playing through the episodes, as well, and was likewise disappointed by it. I did enjoy the added story dimension, but it just felt like the gameplay part was just because that's what we were expected to do. Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed the hell out of the gameplay; SpOps Heroic solo was, in my opinion, harder than campaign Legendary solo -- it just would have been nice to have more essential plot elements tied into the gameplay itself.