I run 2 Pathfinder games, one an AP and the other homebrew.......and I can't really vote for one or the other as more significant. Since I've lacked a face-to-face gaming group for at least a few years now, I run and play entirely over OpenRPG (a virtual tabletop program). Although I do a fair amount of work preparing material for my homebrew Pathfinder setting/campaign (which started first), I have to spend roughly the same amount of time or only slightly less on preparations for running the Jade Regent Adventure Path in my other PF campaign (using Golarion for that one of course).
Not only do I have to read through much of each module beforehand (and the JR Player's Guide, and the assorted info in each AP module regarding whatever area it takes place in), but I also have to copy maps over into MS Paint and save them, then put them online somewhere so I can use them in OpenRPG (and have to tweak the map size in most cases to make it suitable as a battlemap in the program), and edit the maps to remove the stupid marks for "secret doors" and such that Paizo inexplicably includes there when it's already noted inside the module text, along with trying to fiddle with the maps in OpenRPG to try and place the "fog of war" over them and save the maps that way and then modify them during play as the PCs explore.......... Beyond that map-work, which is only mildly less bothersome (at best) than just making up my own maps on the spot for homebrewed campaigns, I *ALSO* have to type up and prepare numerous Nodes (text-files and macros and other things that show up as little links on the side of the OpenRPG window) with the stats and action macros for monsters and NPCs in the module, and other blocks of text from the module that I may have to send to the chat-window during play. Most of which is tedious and slow, in part because recent versions of Adobe Reader no longer allow me to copy and paste multiple lines of text at once from a PDF into a text file.
So..........no, I don't really find the Pathfinder Adventure Paths to be particularly expedient or easy to run compared to just making stuff up myself as I go along or when I have the time to prepare each week. In fact the random bits of info that the modules exclude can be frustrating at times, making me wonder what this or that non-Core item is supposed to be or whether or not it's important for later modules in the series, or whether or not I'm supposed add any loot for the dire corbies and other monsters or NPCs that the group runs into since they (often as not) don't even have a "Treasure" line in their stat-blocks within the module nor at the end of the encounter section there. I have absolutely no idea what time of the year or what year at all the Jade Regent AP is supposed to start in, so I didn't know if I should describe the weather or climate around Sandpoint and elsewhere as warm or cold, rainy or snowy, etc. I have no idea if it even matters later in the AP. Also, several monsters in the Adventure Path have different language listings or extra abilities or missing abilities compared to their entries in the Pathfinder Bestiaries, which is confusing.
And various NPCs or treasures or events in the AP have very specific trigger conditions or discovery conditions or the like, that don't seem likely to occur during play unless the PCs are very methodical or do a lot of wandering before looking for their main goal in any given adventure (and, contrary to one another, the PCs would have do be both methodical and random/indirect, or rather unlucky/incompetent as well as very perceptive and persuasive, in order to find, trigger, befriend, discover, or figure out various situations, events, NPCs, treasures, and such within the same module). And again, I have no idea if any of the NPCs, treasures, or other things in the module that the PCs missed or skipped will actually be important later in the Adventure Path. Short of, y'know, buying the whole thing and reading the whole thing in detail before running any of it, and before knowing if my group would even stick around for the whole Adventure Path or if the campaign would sputter and die in a TPK long before I ever got to use most of the modules after buying them. So I've only got the first 2 modules for now, and am running the 2nd currently. Each module seems to have some important bits of info scattered around it rather than placed where that info ought to be, and I have to spend a lot of time calculating XP and treasure for most encounters and such (plus there are parts where the modules just say to add some treasure worth around X amount of GP, whereas most parts don't even give that much of a guideline).
Oh, and I had to play the monsters/NPCs as kinda tactically stupid/non-evil to avoid killing half the PCs in the module's few big fights or boss fights. Kikonu only avoided slaying one or two PCs because as-written he was supposed to disappear and go rant in another room as soon as any PC injured him or after most of his minions in the encounter dropped or just after a few rounds of combat. Then when he assaulted the group with a larger gang of minions at the forefront, I had to have the NPCs avoid finishing off any PC they dropped or else half the party would've been dead and would have needed to employ the caravan's NPCs (Shalelu, Sandru, and Koya at least) to help them finish finding what they needed in the castle and return to camp with it. A few other fights were harrowing briefly but not as much. The fiendish decapus (I forget its name) nearly killed a PC or two, but his poor attempt to trick PCs in the first place was hindered by the fact that the only language he knew besides Abyssal or whatever was Varisian (which none of the PCs spoke, they had Common and assorted racial languages). He couldn't get close enough to Poison or Smite or grapple anyone with his tentacles, because the party's paladin and rogue immediately started carving him up once he got into melee range, and he died quickly after that.
Besides, printed modules generally fail to provide the degree of detail on any given NPC, item, location, or region that's needed sometimes when actually running the game. When I need to know what the Rusty Dragon serves and what kind of lodgings are available, or how the local sheriff is supposed to behave (and what he's supposed to know) when the PCs question him about recent events or nearby threats, or what the roads are like in and outside of Sandpoint, or what the surrounding countryside is supposed to look like as the party travels there, or what other goblin tribes live in or near Brinestump Marsh and what kind of loot the goblins there should have (or what kind of things would be out-of-place there), or what exactly Shalelu Andosana is supposed to be famous for or what she knows about the surrounding region, or what the HECK the route from Sandpoint to Brinewall is supposed to look like or where the heck any villages/towns/etc. along that route would be or what kind of trade goods they'd have (the PCs ended up wondering if any of the trade goods they picked up earlier included food or similar supplies, as they ran out of caravan provisions by the time they reached Brinewall, simply because they didn't think of restocking provisions at every one of the few villages they passed through and DID NOT KNOW HOW FAR THE NEXT VILLAGE WOULD BE (because neither did I from the module, which doesn't even have a map of the region between Sandpoint and Brinewall, one of the players had to find a map of Varisia online and send me the link, which had very little detail and only showed major cities/landmarks and major geographical features) or that Brinewall would be so far from any inhabited towns once they got there), or what the surrounding wilderness around Brinewall is supposed to be like and how the caravan is supposed to survive out there in the Nolands for days and days while the PCs make trips into Brinewall Castle and keep coming back to camp when mostly depleted of daily resources because they don't want to risk running into a big fight while low on resources, or whether or not the major NPCs are supposed to help out or stay uninvolved while the PCs do adventuring stuff (and whether or not those major NPCs are ever supposed to level-up, and whether or not it matters for later parts of the AP if they do)............
Well, the module just does not say, and I'm left to rummage through PDFs and junk trying to find answers and then just make stuff up as I go along. Also, apparently I'm supposed to shell out hundreds of bucks on Pathfinder supplements and setting books just to learn enough about Golarion and its peoples/cultures/history to have any idea how I should roleplay the behavior and responses of the NPCs in the modules, because they don't bother to give even a cursory explanation of the important points regarding each relevant area/culture/whatever in the modules. So I end up barely roleplaying any of the NPC interactions that the group has, and fast-forward much of that stuff, leaving the game more combat-heavy and less roleplay-oriented because I don't wanna totally eff up the behavior of the NPCs for players who know more about the Golarion setting than I do. Which sucks.
I've played briefly in a few other Pathfinder APs before from the other side of the DM's screen, but also found the info terribly, terribly scarce when creating my character for each of those games and having to guess blindly when figuring out my PC's background, how he should behave, or how he should talk.
So I still prefer running homebrew settings and homebrew campaigns within them, where I can make up my own info and maps without worrying about it clashing with some publisher's existing material or later parts of the published module/AP.
Web would have indeed been quite helpful.
