I pretty much agree with arscott and Vrecknidj.
What if I designed a really awesome, multi-dimensional dungeon map with lots of ways the players could go, and then instead of making a key of encounters, I just sat down and made a list of all the fun and important encounters that the PCs should experience before they got to the end?
Then no matter which way the players went, they would still end up fighting the kobold sentries, solving the riddle of the magic pool, talking to the prisoners who give the PCs clues about the BBEG, finding the secret door, killing the guardian of the helm of brilliance, and then using it against the half-dragon lich in the final encounter.
Now this might sound like railroading, but it results in a cool adventure. Much more fun than if the players completely bypass the clues, miss the helm, and become lich-food.
So I think one reason some published modules tend to be linear (with or without dungeons) is that the story makes more sense or is more enjoyable when one encounter sets up (or in some way prepares for) the next. Just as in fiction, every scene should have a purpose.
IMHO.
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