Did the MW reboot ever truly earn Price's reaction to Soap's death?

One of the biggest issues I have with MWIII and what we've seen from MW4 so far is how much emotional weight seems to depend on players remembering the original trilogy rather than what was actually built in the reboot timeline.

In the original games, Price's reaction to Soap's death worked because their relationship was developed over multiple games. They fought together for years. Soap wasn't just another member of the team. He was arguably the person closest to Price.

The reboot never really built that same relationship.

Soap doesn't even appear until MWII. Most of his development happens alongside Ghost rather than Price. They share some moments, sure, but nowhere near enough to justify treating their bond as equivalent to the original trilogy.

Yet MWIII kills Soap and suddenly MW4 appears to revolve around Price losing control because of it.

That's where I struggle.

It feels like the writers expect players to transfer emotional investment from the original trilogy into the reboot instead of earning it through the reboot's own storytelling.

The result is a strange situation where Price's reaction feels based more on who Soap was in the original timeline than who Soap was in this one.

Maybe MW4 will reveal additional events between games that make everything click into place. Maybe there are missing pieces we haven't seen yet.

But based on MWII and MWIII alone, I don't think the reboot did enough work to make Price's apparent obsession feel fully earned.

Does anyone else feel like the reboot sometimes relies too heavily on memories of the original trilogy instead of developing its own relationships?