I find it very hard to believe that Pardew would have managed to better 92 points. I'm fairly confident that we still would have finished 2nd or 3rd, but I don't see how we'd have done any better. 92 is a superb points tally.
I do accept the argument that we turned on the style better under Pardew than under Adkins - there were numerous occassions under Pardew where we seemed to score for fun, and just blew the opposition out of the water - but we did finish with the best GD in the league this season. So we clearly weren't that boring or toothless. In particular we had a superb run of goals over the winter period, where we really did look miles too good for L1.
As many have said, it's very hard to compare. The circumstances are completely different. One managed under almost no pressure, the other managed under immense pressure. It didn't matter where you looked summer, or what you read, Saints were meant to get promoted this season. Moreover, the 5 year plan said we had to get promoted this season. Lee Clark, Gus Poyet, Darren Ferguson - none of them had that sort of pressure on them this season.
I think Pardew did a great job. But I think Adkins has gone an even better one. To tweak DTLW's ratings slightly, I would give Pardew 8/10 and Adkins 9.5/10. (The away defeats to Tranmere and Walsall are the only reason Adkins doesn't get 10/10 for me - but they are such minor points, and ultimately didn't cost us automatic, that he only loses the smallest of margins)