The hunt aspect might not be directly misleading, but it’s knowingly pointless; we spend the majority of the game tracking down the person, the iconic hero, who’s experiencing the most interesting turn of events that are moving the franchise forward. The more interesting story (y’know, all the boxes you checked?) are happening with John, the Master Chief, the face of the franchise, the character on the box art of every iterative Halo since the early 2000s.
Most of what I listed is happening from Osiris's POV, not Blue Team's. I mean, if we're keeping track:
-Promethean rebellion: Osiris
-AI defection: Osiris
-Destruction of Jul's Covenant: Osiris
-Created taking control: Mainly Osiris, but technically both, since the teams are working together by then.
Blue Team is mostly there to understand why this is happening (as in, understanding from a narrative point of view).
And feel however you want about ODST, but it never purported to be as substantive an installment of the franchise as Halo 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5; it was sold as an additional, in-universe story (it was actually going to be sold as Halo 3 DLC, but they decided there was enough there that a standalone release could be merited. And let’s not forget, it sold new for $30 when you compare it to the $60 games.) Yes, it IS a sidestory, and it never claimed to be anything else. Judging it by the standards of major installments is akin to judging your fries by the standards of your burger.
ODST is just all around lousy though.
Yes, it's a sidestory. Yes, it might have sold for less than other Halo games. Yes, it was a spinoff to Halo 3. I don't care, it was still lacklustre. I don't give special pleading to other sidestories in other IPs, ODST doesn't get any special protection because of its status.
So don’t act “surprised” when people are upset that they spend the least of the game continuing John’s journey. Relegating him to the least of the game and putting the player in control of some new guy chasing down him and the more interesting events in the game and calling it “the next major Halo” sounds like 343 is milking the tale, like someone who found a million dollars in a briefcase (AMAZING!!), but spends the first three-quarters of their story telling you what they had for breakfast that morning (who gives a shit?)
I'm not "acting" surprised, I was (and am) surprised.
To be clear, this isn't a case that criticism of Halo 5's story is invalid (there's plenty of things to criticize it for), but the idea of sharing screentime with John never registered as an issue to me. I mean, okay, playing through the campaign, I would have preferred to spend more time with Blue Team, but you're hindering yourself if, in a multi-stage story, you're tying yourself to the same protagonist regardless as to whether it demands it or not.
I, for one, had no problem SHARING Halo 2 with the Arbiter; at least substantive events were happening in his portion of the game; it’s how we learned, intimately, the beliefs and structure of the then ominous Covenant. What of any significance did we learn as Osiris that couldn’t have been learned during John’s tale? What SIGNIFICANT contribution did Osiris’ tale make to the Halo universe that it deserved the mantle (lol) of Halo “5”?
To be clear, I put Halo 2's story above Halo 5's, even if I find almost all of the Arbiter's levels tedious, which isn't something I can say for Osiris. That said, I've already listed above the stuff we learnt with Osiris, how most of the plot points are seen from their POV. I mean, hypothetically, you could completely rewrite Halo 5 in such a matter that every main plot point is from Blue Team's POV, but we're getting into hypotheticals. Games like Halo 3 and Halo 4 would definitely benefit from rewrites, but that's a path I'm wary of going down. In part, because we're in the realm of hypotheticals. In part, because multiple times on FFN, I've seen people say things to the effect of "X was bad, so I'm going to rewrite X so it's good," only for their content to be sub-par. I mean, yes, I've novelized stuff, and made alterations/additions as I've deemed necessary, but never declared that "my shit is better than your shit" as part of the description.
Also, I don't know if it's a question of 'deserving' the spotlight. You could apply that question to pretty much anything when there's alternatives. Why does Noble Team 'deserve' the spotlight of Halo: Reach for instance, when you could have told the story from the POV of Spartan-IIs that had been canonically established. Why does Palmer 'deserve' the spotlight of Halo: Spartan Assault? Why does the Arbiter 'deserve' half the spotlight of Halo 2? Deserving is the wrong question to ask - Halo 2 benefits from Thel's presence narrative-wise. Having Noble Team in Halo: Reach works narratively because all bets are off as to whether the characters survive or not. So to get to Halo 5, yes, John is put on a pedastal, both in-universe and out of universe, but he's not the only game in town - least at this point in the franchise, when the Spartan-IVs are a thing.