The games that work for me ...Fair enough. What are the differences with the games that do work for you?
At some point, the things the PCs are going after need to arise from their interests, their goals, their backstories. The story that emerges from play needs to feel as though it is about them. That is not a feel published adventures do well, even if the GM is working hard to shape them some (and our GM was).
Part of that is my strong feeling that once you start a long adventure/adventure path, play at the table becomes about finishing that adventure, not ... about what the characters want, or about what the players really would prefer. If you look at what the players actually put on their character sheets--and even more so if you talk to them about what they put on their character sheets--you can get a good sense for what the players are looking for from the game, and you can shape play around that. That sort of player-responsiveness is also not a strength of published adventures, IME.