Redvenm,
Your experience is exactly what I was expecting. 2 oz big load, no pre-treating everything comes out good. But even with a small load (4 single softs) 2 oz and confirming that the washer was set for a small load I did not get your results.
The water level in the washer, just guessing here, was about 6 inches deep so that looked right for a small load. Maybe it needs more towels added to the mix ???