Lynch apparently agrees with you on the "Angel-lite" aspect. He states in the exit interview in the back of Angel 16 - that he wishes he'd gotten to explore Angel more, but he had too many balls to juggle and too many characters to focus on. If he were to write another book - he'd limit the characters and write a solo Angel story.

I agree - the book's far too busy and there are one too many big scale, special effects laden fight sequences. The Cordy/Angel chat was fine, but could have been shorter.

The Spike series benefited from the smaller focus and less characters.

I actually like the fact that Spike's arc was bleak, but then I'm a huge fan of angst in fiction. Heck, I watch BSG and Lost.