I don't know if always avoiding the timeline is a good idea. Flash started as and still is an animation tool. I've programmed flash since version 3 and sometimes its just easier to move things around a timeline. When I have to fix a banner that has 1,000 lines of code I wish they had just did a stupid tween and I can call it a day. IMHO
PS- this tween class is pretty good...
hosted.zeh.com.br/mctween/doc_glowto.html