In features, directors are the ultimate creative authority. But in a series, the showrunner is, and the showrunner is usually a writer --- most series have episodic directors (and often episodic writers, or at least a member of the writer's room credited for each episode), and because the showrunner has the top-down view of the whole series, the show bible, and has made all the decisions about tone and style that directors will rely on, they end up calling many of the shots a feature director would ordinarily call.
It's probably not really so much that television values story more than film than that the episodic structure of television lends itself to this kind of system.
It's probably not really so much that television values story more than film than that the episodic structure of television lends itself to this kind of system.