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You have the right idea to avoid the typical stages. And as Bradypus indicated, there are many apps to choose from with useful information. Also, I loaded the albergue list, available on this site, on my iPhone and found it most helpful. Link: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...lbergues-on-the-camino-frances-in-one-pdf.10/
Google and other maps will show you all the towns and villages but won't indicate whether there is accommodation in those places. As mentioned above, a good guide book such as John Brierley's A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago is divided into stages, yes, but also shows most of the accommodation available in intermediate places - all the intermediate villages and towns are marked on his maps. Another which does this is the French Miam Miam Dodo which is not divided into stages and shows accommodation within 5km of the Camino (it's all in French though) and there are other guides too. Or there are good online guides such as Gronze which is divided into stages but also lists accommodation available at most of the intermediate points. Guides which divide the route into stages do so for convenience and as a way to split up the maps, mostly. There is nothing mystical about the guide book/map stages and absolutely no reason to stick with them (different guides often use slightly different stages anyway). As you say, the most popular stops tend to be the ones at the end of stages in the main guide books - it's easy to avoid these if you want to.
When we walked the Camino Frances in 2014, I found the Android mobile app "Camino Pilgrim" (downloadable free from Play Stores) invaluable. It linked to google maps so had all the settlements on it. We used it to develop our own stages & itinerary, and to follow our path in 'real time' on the downloadable maps. I'm not technologically gifted, but it was great to be able to follow the blue GPS dot on a map aligned with the Camino path (particularly at intersections) and therefore to know where I was!
