Recommended way to handle a serious number of assets?

Hi, at my company we are developing a number of commercial games for mobile devices. I can't give many details about the project due to agreements with potential publishers but I would like to emphasize that this is a large, serious project, with a lot of 2D art.

According to what we saw in many documents from Adobe, we are embedding everything in the project. At the beginning everything went fine, but as the game grows, we are facing multiple serious problems:

1. "Java heap space" error - It seems the compiler is somehow not ready to manage the amount of embedded resources we have. We have a lot of art and resources but it is not THAT much. If Adobe wants developers to use their tools for real games, it should accept this amount of resources and many more...
2. Memory footprint - The memory used by the game, even in the main menu, increases as we add new levels. This is a serious concern in older devices like the first version of the iPad, iPhone 3GS or similar Android devices.

So, we would like to know from someone from Adobe that can explain what's their opinion about this problem and what solutions can they offer.

NOTES:

1. Yes, we have increased the memory allowed for Flash Builder to use, but we don't think this is a real solution. It may work for our game with 30 levels, but what if we decide to add 100 more? This is not scalable and it's far from acceptable in a professional environment.
2. We are currently investigating the option to use the Loader class to load and unload resources as needed. However, we have read that you can't access the resources "exported for ActionScript" and that it just loads whatever is in the stage. Is this true?