I'm a little late to the party but I thought I would weigh in here with my 2 cents worth.
I enjoy the writing in the Adventure Paths, I feel that they are well done with interesting stories. That said, I generally cherry pick the adventures. Very rarely do I pick up an entire path. I work in a gamestore, a fact that allows me the luxury of reading the APs thoroughly before I decide to buy them or not. I also generally wait until an AP is finished before I buy any of the parts.
I thing the idea of collected hardcovers is nice, but ultimately they are probably not viable. On one hand, they allow for the oppurtunity to revisit the material and shore up weak spots. On the other hand, a portion of your customer base will most likely feel like they are being punished for buying the individual APs as the hardcovers may have some tweaked or revised content.
I heartily agree with the idea of focused rules supplements. A good modular system for managing a kingdom, or even just a small fiefdom, would be very welcome. This is also the kind of material that can be fairly edition nuetral and a much easier sell to just about anyone. Material focused on organizations such as religions or perhaps thieves guilds are also a good avenue.
The most valuable asset for Paizo, in my opinion, is a strong core of writers who do a great job of providing flavorful material. I think that focusing on the fluff is definately the strength of the Paizo team.
Finally I think that maintaining close ties to the community, something that Paizo does well, is another powerful asset for the company. Paizo does a good job of addressing the needs of its customer base and making themselves accessible to the fans.
Ultimately, I would probably change very little, as overall, I think that Paizo is doing a very good job.
