It's not just the amount of action - it's the lack of substance behind it. And sometimes - weird pacing. First and Only begins with: - an out of context action scene as a prologue - followed by another (which felt like there'd be more story on the other side of the war), which was actually prologue.

and gaunts ghosts is meant to be one of the good ones lol

I think I would recommend short stories. For example, Crimson Snow by Lora Gray is great - the characters are distinctly inhuman, and have interesting struggles. Or Watcher in the Rain by Alec Worley, where Imperium is both the only thing present, and the source of horror.

watcher in the rain i have read before, i wanted to check out more of their horror line afterward

The most mechsploitation story in this collection, "The Marauder Lives" by J.C.Stearns, was meandering and inconclusive. "The Nothings" by aforementioned Worley, was another diabolus ex machina (I went into it with no prior lore knowledge, so foreshadowing was falling on deaf ears).

Like, if you don't mind them failing at being a story, some of them provide good (but very unfinished) text. This is the case with Widow's Tide by Richard Strachan. Nepenthe by Cassandra Khaw is borderline unreadable - in-universe words with no context. You can't tell apart a person from an item.

I read through the entire collection called Maledictions, and it was a very mixed bag. Some were incompetent. Some, with great prose - and abrupt endings. Like, twenty page story has ALL of its conclusion within a page with no buildup.

It probably gets good later on - I couldn't get through to where we finally meet said ghosts. I gave up after several attempts to read a page detailing some military activity, and failing to grasp its relevance. Horus Rising - another common suggestion - begins with a whole chapter of just action.