Some of these games (eg, SQ) essentially little post-modernist satires of their own genre, in that they make save/restore part of the game mechanic, and when you hit an obstacle, the search space isn't just the four screens you can walk to now, but the game thus far. Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy played this up in a very fast and funny way -- where there's about eight things you need to do in quick succession to…
I side with the author. Not every bad game design has to be post-modernist satire of something, and how could it be, of a genre that was that new? Seeing it that way is a coping mechanism, and I bet that it is replacing just normal failure with something that is not there.
I remember such a Fantasy book and dying by taking the wrong way. The interesting part is that I still remember it, the concept of a playable book was totally fascinating for me at that time. But that it was unfair – there was no way of knowing which way of the cave, up or down, would kill you – I did not like even back then.