Generally I consider this as a lack of recall, if I don't feel present enough in dreams, it is generally due to not being present enough in dreams.

I consider there to be two types of awareness
General dream awareness. This is the awareness in dreams that could be considered "present" in a dream. You make logical decisions based on what is happening around you. You are the one making the decisions though. Doesn't mean that it makes waking sense, but if zombies are attacking you, it makes sense to defend yourself. No matter how absurd.
generally increasing recall will increase this awareness.
State awareness.
Awareness of the fact that there is a dream state and a waking state. No matter how aware you are in a dream, if you don't have any state awareness, the idea of dream simply won't come up, because you are never aware of states. This is helped by RCing and other lucid techniques.

If you have GDA, and no State awareness, then you will have long epic amazing non lucid dreams. If you have state awareness and no GDA, then you will have dreams that you know that you are dreaming, but they will be hazy and feel like "fake lucids" generally if you have enough of both state and general dream awareness, you will have plenty of both kinds of dreams, but you will also have full lucids in which you are making the decisions and are aware that it is a dream.

Hope this makes sense. either kind of dream is a good sign, it shows us that there is progress, and what to work on.