At most I'd like to see a 3-4 part adventure. I'm burned out on APs still.
Exactly. An adventure series needs to be only long enough to tell the story.
While Adventure Paths are really successful, I think the constraints of having to stretch the AP out from levels 1-30 (or 1-20 for 3.X stuff) is the reason that the H/P/E modules and the Scales of War adventures (and Age of Worms, too) are so combat heavy and turn people off.
The way XP works, those encounters have to be there to make sure the party is the right level for the next adventure. In 4e, that's what, 250+ combat encounters to go from level 1 to level 30. In nine modules for the H/P/E series.
Without the pressure to cover the entire level spread, the adventure pacing and combat heaviness can be dictated by the story and common sense.