I think that's what some people have a problem with though. As the Halo series went on, the cutscenes started to get longer and longer. Plus I think some people were hoping for that more lengthy experience based on some comments Bungie made somewhere.

I don't feel that way at all and Im still only playing through solo first. Like I've said, it feels like Halo CE - short bursts of story that provide a framework to your own personally-created narrative while slowly pulling you through different aspects of the universe.

I agree with just about everything you said. To be fair though, games can still tell compelling stories without cutscenes, I guess I just haven't seen that yet in Destiny. In my meager progression through the game so far it looks to me like Bungie swapped having memorable and interesting characters out for replayability/gameplay purposes. I fully admit that the rest of the game could prove me wrong though.

Concerning Halo CE however, the character and story development started from the beginning and that is what drew me in. I liked Keyes a lot by the third mission when I rescued him. Cortana's banter to the chief made me fond of her by the second or third mission. Even hearing Foehammer over the radio made me feel connected to the survivors on the ring.
So far in Destiny I don't feel connected to any other NPC Guardians (in fact that chick we see watching as we fly off in the first mission is pissing me off because she is never interested in helping me not die). The Speaker has only repeated Destiny marketing buzz to me. Dinklebot has revealed back story, but has no real personality so far. In fact, even the enemies don't have personality (though I haven't gotten to the rest yet).

Disclaimer: These are just in-progress thoughts. My opinions may change if these issues go away as I continue.

I don't feel that way at all and Im still only playing through solo first. Like I've said, it feels like Halo CE - short bursts of story that provide a framework to your own personally-created narrative while slowly pulling you through different aspects of the universe. It's not removing something, it's keeping a movie-like cutscene experience at a minimum to allow the story to be told in a different way: the game itself. The actions I do, the details I find, the ambience I overhear. And yes this also leaves space enough to allow multiple people to fight through the story without being bogged down by too many interludes but it also allows for solo replayability as well. The short story prompts get you into a mission and going and that's where different, sometimes new, things will happen as you continue to play and play, as opposed to making you relive long cutscenes over and over. Some games have an intense eight hour campaign full of five minute cutscenes every twenty minutes and that be amazing. Destiny isn't attempting that approach. It feels like a slow build, minimum intrusion to allow each mission to stay fruitful and flexible for extended replayability and a much longer adventure down the road.

Eh, I'd argue that Halo 1 actually had an extremely well defined story that doesn't compare to Destiny in that it seems straight forward at first but builds into significance and urgency as far as there being the Covenant after us and thus we need to survive, round up survivors, and find the Captain, but there's this big mystery about the random ring world, why the Covenant want it, is it a weapon that can turn the tide of this decades-long war, and oh my gosh the Flood. The narrative and overall writing for H1 was absolutely solid.

Destiny lacks almost all of this, but it appears to be working thus far. I only just got to Venus last night, but it seems like all story bits from Earth got completely dropped at this point. The Moon's story seems to be leading us somewhere real, which is why we're going to Venus. I assume things will pick up. The dropping of plot elements makes me furious in general, but I'm willing to be very patient in this case. Expansion in December, another later on. There's that huge bunker in the Grottos. Earth isn't over yet. Destiny 2 or whatever they have coming could absolutely tie back to a lot of this stuff, too.

At the moment, this game has not taken anything in-game from the story and dropped it to fit something convenient. We don't need many cutscenes at the moment. There's plenty of fun and action to be had, and right now things are building. I agree with how you say it's a slow build with minimum intrusion, and it has allowed each mission to stay fruitful and flexible (especially when playing with friends).

I have quite a ways to go before my first thoughts on Destiny's narrative really start to form, but...

it feels like Halo CE - short bursts of story that provide a framework to your own personally-created narrative while slowly pulling you through different aspects of the universe.

Halo 1 does not throw very many details at you, but it has an extremely defined narrative, which all aspects of the game are tightly built around. Even in places where the game is "nonlinear" or "open," that openness is what the narrative wants you to feel. You can choose your exact trajectory to some degree, and it's certainly designed to make you feel like you're a driving force at times, but calling it a "personally-created narrative" seems strange to me. Sort of like people calling the Chief a "blank slate" in Bungie's games, when he strikes me as a simple but extremely well-defined archetype.

Although if we're simply discussion how it feels, I guess the description can make sense, and there's plenty of room for imagination. Maybe I'm just looking at your sentence from a different angle.