Exactly. It's almost like this style is providing an excuse to animate a shallow story, instead of bouncing them back to the think tank.
K-ON is a bit different in my books because the first episode didn't explode with a grand premise or plot like Sora no Woto and Occult did. That show only really picked up at episode 2, and the entire show is about the characters more so than the overall plot anyway.
I'd speak a bit differently if the filling episodeswereare/will be of much more significance to the endgame like Ga-Rei Zero.