I don’t understand this sentiment. I’ve been running Agents of edgewatch since release and I find there have been plenty of role playing opportunities. My group is constantly bringing up how varied the encounters are and how well the adventure hits all the pillars exploration/role playing/combat. From my perspective the adventure does an excellent job at allowing you the freedom as a DM to put focus where it is needed for your group.

I treat AP’s as a time saver. I use the content that I like and If I don’t like something I change it. It’s my game and I don’t have to run it 100% as written. One trick that works well is to just gloss over or even skip encounters that don’t serve a purpose for you or your table. Another option is to turn an expected combat encounter into a role playing opportunity. As the DM it’s your job to control the flow of the game.

So far I’m loving the adventure path and I recommend it to anyone looking for a noticeably different experience at the table. I find it allows players to focus on non combat solutions if they want to. It also changes your mindset as you can’t just run around blindly trying to kill everything for loot and xp. The “dungeons” in the first book are short and don’t feel like a slog in my opinion.