You need to sythesise to an extent, but complete synthesis is just not required IMO. Synthesis is more vital as a technique rather than its structural counterpart (integration). What I mean is you can structure your response around texts rather than notions or whatever else, as it is still...
I'm afraid you are wrong. Check out what standard package is available to you. I can only access Change 2002, but at least two of the four "exemplar" (i.e. 15/15) responses had huge sections that weren't fully integrated. Admittedly, the question was a feature article, but the same rules would...
There are different ways to get into band 6 and I find that you don't have to fully integrate the essay. Of course, it's great if you can, but structuring the AOS essay according to different texts isn't that bad, as long as you still partially synthesise by finding links between them. A good...
I'm pretty sure you will only write about one stimulus text in the exam. HOWEVER, there is that slight possibility that they will ask you to write about a specific stimulus text, which means you will have to know at least a bit about each text and have one of them as your most prepared one. :(
All you're doing is linking the significance of a couple of vignettes from the text rather than analysing the text as a whole though. Dunno, I find that I'm still able to write about 1 page A4 per text. That works out to be even more on the little BOS booklets :-P
I guess it'll depend on the question though, but I always thought that question three was about illustrating the concept of journeys rather than analysing specific texts.