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4E combat is incredibly map focused. It is, perhaps, its greatest strength, and depending on your tastes, its greatest weakness. So I totally get what you're saying.

With regard to the Fluid 4E rules, I gave them a try and saw them as unneeded additional kludge. They kind of work but I didn't want a NEW ruleset to run 4E, I wanted to remove the grid heavy implimentation of 4E.

The short answer. It can't really be done without a bunch of new rules or a DM taking inordinate amounts of questions. 4E is so intensely designed around the assumption of a battle grid, minis and the like that it pretty much ceases to be 4E when you remove that. Many powers become useless without a grid.

And that is the solution. If you REALLY really want to make this work, here is how I was able to get to almost kind of sort of work.

You have to get your players on board with this, since there will be a lot of off limits material.

You also have to be open to collaborative combat descriptions. Let your players tell you what THEY see and trust them not to do things just to screw you and vice versa. If they feel like the battlefield exists as it does in their mind and they can contribute to that vision in a meaningful way, things will go more smoothly IMO>

Basically, you have to sort through your power choices and pick those powers that don't rely heavily on the grid. Striker powers are easy. Raw damage or ongoing damage is the simplest. For controllers, look for ongoing effects. Prone is a really good one because it allows for combat advantage without having to worry about adjacency or flanking. Avoid things that push/pull/slide since their effectiveness is mostly negated.  For leaders look for attack buffs/debuffs and raw healing. Avoid powers that grant an additional square of movement of free shifts, since those are pretty much useless. For defenders, look for marks that work when adjacent and then houserule them to work when engaged with the defender. Avoid auras since they're too hard to track without a grid. Now, as the DM, you have to do the same for monsters. Avoid monsters that have auras (unless you want to use an Aura 1 to mean anyone who actively engages that monster). Avoid monsters who push/pull/slide unless the forced movement results in the player engaging that monster toe to toe. Be careful with your use of skirmishers. They can really get hairy.

To sum it up, you can kind of make it work if you're VERY selective with the powers you choose.

Good luck!