This series is about the entire Wheel of Time, not just about Rand and the DO. Mat's courtship of Tuon was "padding" as you define it, as was Elayne's conquest of Andor, and indeed many subplots could disappear (including some of Rand's). The idea isn't to tell a story as quickly as possible, but to weave a pattern of stories. The Pattern is in many ways and analogy for the novel itself, and the Creator the author.

I understand your position (I felt aggrieved by the length of Perrin's hunt for Faile the first time I read it), but I found that my pre-TGS reread was vastly different. No longer did I really mind the Elayne/Nynaeve carnival antics, nor Faile's POVs from the Shaido camp. In fact, I enjoyed them immensely. I think this is a combination of two factors - I'm older now, and I also knew what was going to happen, so instead of wanting to see what was going to occur next, I was happy to enjoy each moment of the text for what it was.