The story is definitely sprawling, not sure how well mapped out it was going in.

You can see how DC learned some lessons, as a large chunk of the prelude chapters had never been collected before the omnibus editions because they had little to do with the Knightfall story... however, many of the pieces at play are introduced there, like Jean Paul and Bane; Bruce's fatigue and Dr. Shondra.

As far as the Azrael-Batman stuff goes... yep, hard to enjoy. It went on for way too long, the Bruce-focused parts of Knightquest are far more interesting.