What i am suggesting is not necessarily more guidance from OPCOM, but rather to have some more direct feedback from the game on how am i doing in the persistence campaign, assuming there is an overall objective in the campaign. This feedback could be in term of resource I can use or other more transparent progress indication. If anything, I am more than happy to be my own OPCOM, especially in a insurgency campaign where I only need a couple squad to go out do active patrol and most other friendly are just static defense.
The way, JD Wang, u describe is how i play alive now too, as it is almost the only way. It is fun for single mission but not very satisfying for a grand campaign, and I just feel it is quite a waste if Alive can not be fully enjoyed as a persistent campaign...