How is the campaign even remotely fun?

I dont understand, how is it fun? so I bought AoE 2 HD like 8 months ago, and every time I decided to pick it up, I instantly closed it after like half an hour because of how boring the campaign is, unless I'm missing something.

a few days ago, decided to pick it up and play regular games instead, fast forward a few days and been playing an average of like 5 hrs a day, already beat a free for all 6 player map on moderate AI, it's so much fun learning the game and trying to play better, but the campaign is so trash, it's not a good "tutorial" at all.