Most of these comments are based on Lost Mines of Phandelver, Phandelin and Below, Dragon of Icespire Peak (and the additional modules that came with it in Roll20) and Storm King's Thunder. Maybe the other modules change this but it doesn't really look like it. So...
1. Broad, not long
I have a problem is with the way Wizards does modules as a skeleton outline from level 1-20. This maps out a characters entire life. You start with this module and damnit your gonna go all the way... 20 levels is too much commitment. My characters are sick of Phandelin and they've only gone through a mash of Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak and they are only at 5th level. Space considerations ensure they can't put enough content for proper levelling so they race through levels and the DM has to fill in a lot of adventures along the way. Charitably this could be seen as a way to encourage DMs to home-brew but I don't think it works that way in practice. I think most will lean on DMs Guild content full of mini-adventures or just have them race up the levels.
Storm King's Thunder showed the way, somewhat (I haven't finished reading it). The module goes from 1-20 but also starts with a disposable 1st section that takes you from 1-5 and suggests skipping that part if your characters come over from the Starter Set's Lost Mines of Phandelver. I'd prefer the first chapter was skipped entirely but If you must start every adventure at 1st level this is the way to go.
I've also read that Storm King's Thunder and Rime of the Frostmaiden both have great middle-play and flop a bit at the end. If true that suggests, once again that they should be concentrating on the tiers of play. They list tiers of play in the DM's Guide. Write the adventures for the Tiers. A sandbox with a throughline. Then when done the GM can look over the next Tier of play for adventures or pick the one that naturally segways with the previous Throughline.
I guess the downside is that a crappy adventure will never sell the upper tier, and like TSR found, high level adventures don't sell so well. Well then encourage the DM's Guild writers to concentrate on the upper tiers so the Wizards don't have to spend the time and resources. Let 3rd party folks continue the through-line. It would be great to have multiple companies come up with a high tier conclusion to different adventure threads.
2. Organize Better
I'm a technical writer by trade so organizing information is one of my bug-a-boos. I'm reading Storm King's Thunder and it's driving me crazy. In the Technical Writing World we have a thing called DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). The idea is to divide types of information (instruction, reference, info) so that different parts can be re-used easily. A simple example of this is the way Wizards has Goblin printed in a module with the Statblock in the Appendix or in the Monster Manual. Saves space. Not the most usable, but it saves a lot of space and makes reading the module far easier.
So in Storm King's Thunder they have a section of detailing a town. Then following that a bit of adventure, then quests. Then detailing a second town. Then adventure, then quests. Some of these quests take you to additional location. So the straight-up location info is great as it could be re-used in a dozen adventures but it's spread out all over the place making it far harder to use that way. It also is stuff that really isn't so relevant for the adventure or the quests. Then in the next chapter they have info on the different cultures and sites throughout the Savage Frontier. Great stuff for running those adventures between the set-pieces but it makes it harder to have them spread all over the place. Then they have a few locations that a blended with the adventure they serve. I'm not talking about those because those are logically combined.
A better organization would have been to divide the book into three big sections.
- The Savage Frontier - Include all the details about cultures, locations (not specific to a one-shot adventure), cities. All the stuff you would want if you dumped the Giant content and just wanted to run adventures in the Savage Frontier.
- The adventures. A chapter on each attack location and the Quests that follow. Mostly the way things were done in Storm King's Thunder from Chapter 4-12.
- Appendixes. exactly as they are.
3. Cut the fat
Reading through the town descriptions is a chore because they try to give fun little bits about every single building. for example:
Tl7. ULDINATH'S ARMS
This hilltop smithy across the road from Foehammer's Forge (area T18) is run by Harriet Uldinath (LG female Illuskan human commoner), the great-granddaughter of the establishment's founder. Harriet has known Ghel ryn Foehammer since she was a child, and the two are friendly rivals. Harriet sells fine weapons stamped with the Uldinath family glyph, which generally increases their value by 25 percent.
Could have been just...
Tl7. ULDINATH'S ARMS - Harriet Uldinath (LG female Illuskan human commoner) sells fine weapons stamped with the Uldinath family glyph, which increases their cost by 25 percent.
The rest could be included in a table of potential backgrounds for proprieters in that town and saved a lot of time. So now it's all canon but most adventurers aren't gonna go to T17, and if they do are unlikely to talk about the family history, so it's wasted space. Fluff takes longer to read, and makes it harder to find anything. Fluff is bad.
So if I was made lead designer of WoTC that's what I'd concentrate on first. Better modules.
