Am I Missing Something?

I love X-COM and tactical RPG's. I'm a wee bit confused about ZCOM. It seems like levelling up doesn't really matter much? Sure, you get +1's, but enemy health and stuff is an order of magnitude different. In X-Com, or Midnight Suns or one of Harebrained Schemes' games, a +1 was worthwhile. Here's it's just "meh", because the opponents are already bullet sponges. And you don't get new abilities? Levelling up just incrementally increases the two each character starts with? This all feels a bit blech.

Am I missing something?