Same here. For me, the question is "why would you NOT want to do narrative play?"
I'm not sure I agree that Escape From Goblintown is a good way to start, though, unless you /really/ like that first Hobbit movie. Your right in pointing out the model counts are pretty reasonable ... but I just don't think the scenarios are very good. But hey, if you're a big Goblintown fan, go for it.
I also can't help but plug my https://www.sbginventory.com web site if you are into narrative play. Even if you don't care to sign in, you can still comb through hundred of scenarios, filtering by source book and sorting by size.