Indeed you are not alone in the downloading of intriguing podfics at amplificathon time and then the dust-gathering and languishing thing. /o\
Oh good! Or, well, not good but at least I'm not alone?

I know deep in my soul that I could be missing out on something aMAzing if I refuse to download short things
There are some short podfics that I absolutely love and adore too but I'll admit, I'm one of those people that hesitates with short podfics. It's not actually the downloading that gets me, so much as the fact that I bookmark everything a listen to or read on Delicious and creating entries for all the short ones (especially since I mostly listen at work, where it's a distraction and taking me away from my work) is just too time consuming. /o\
But! For other people it's the effort of downloading and then syncing to their players and embeds will help for those people.