Bioshock Infinite's Vigors

I finally played through Bioshock Infinite (I had been waiting until I would have some time to focus on it, so over break I binged over the course a couple days) and now I'm catching up on all the commentary and reactions to it, which are quite interesting.

Theres one thing I want to comment on though, and that's Infinite's vigors (their version of plasmids from Bioshock 1). The (entirely accurate) criticism floating around is that they're not really part of the world and they're out of place and make allot less sense than in Bioshock 1. In 1, they were integral to the story, and part of the narrative was the consequences of their existence, while here you get superpowers casually, none of the other inhabitants have them (even though you can buy them out of very common vending machines), and basically the game gives them to you the protagonist, then ignores them.

Now, from the story, narrative, and world-building perspectives that's just awful. Its weird and distracting and what is the point of it? However, from a gameplay perspective, I can say the game would absolutely have been less interesting without them. Whatever else Bioshock Infinite is, its a shooter and allot of play time is in combat that is significantly richer, more interesting, and more engaging for having vigors.

To me its about doing something because of the medium, to make it more effective, rather than the message. For example, I vaguely remember Faulkner originally wanted one of his books to be printed with each character's thoughts and speaking in a different color ink (but didn't because it was too expensive). It seems like if you had a book that made a big deal about the symbolism of color and it was intimately connected to the characters and an integral part of the work, and it was very well received. Then with your next book, even though it had nothing to do with color (but was similar in other themes) you still used different colors because it did make it easier to keep track of things and made the book easier to follow and enjoy. That's what it makes me think of; something done due to the medium (in this case shooter) to make it more enjoyable that isn't well connected to the story.

(And yes, I know the vigors are more problematic because they exist in world, while the ink colors wouldn't necessarily be, but whatever)

Now whether, you think the detriment to the story is worth the benefit to the gameplay is an interesting and personal question and matter of priorities. As I said, I think it would have been less interesting and fun without them, personally, and didn't really care that the story ignored them.

But what about you? What do you think about the balance of narrative and gameplay concerns?
Here, in other specific games, or generally?