I like your tastes, and respect your decisions for dropping.
I tend to love strong female characters as well, but it's very
hard to find them in action manga. I'm more drawn to Josei
or Shojou manga with strong heroines. (Not too many in
Shojou, but when I find them I am so happy.)
I can recommend you short stories with interesting characters,
good writing and plots, and they won't be overly long either,
but they won't be very similar to what you've listed down:
Skyhigh
This manga is about people who die suddenly or violently. At
the start of each chapter a new soul finds itself at a gate and
is given a choice: Go through the gate and be reborn, go back
to earth and haunt it forever as a ghost, or kill one person on
earth and live the rest of eternity in hell.
^this one is action-y.
Sakuran
This one is a story of a girl back in feudal Japan. This girl is
smart, stubborn, rude, but beautiful. She is sold off to become
a Geisha. The story's themes center around the struggle of
being a woman back in those times.
Can't See Can't Hear But Love is the story about a blind man and a
deaf girl who are in love. Originally it revolves around their
struggles as two handicapped individuals and how they have
adjusted to the world around them and live happily together.
Then old love interests come in and start causing trouble for
them as well. It's not done yet so I can't promise it won't end
in some big ********, but what's out now is worth the read,
I promise.
Gokusen
A badass female teacher teaches delinquents hot to behave.
This is not a female version of GTO.
I Am Currently Living With a Bear is oneshot about a woman who
wakes up one day and finds her husband has changed in to
a walking, talking, nagging bear. What happened?
These are some that I loved but I can't remember why:
The Sleepy Residents of Birdcage Manor
Transiet Flower 
