I did read your answer to stg83, but I was waiting up, wondering if you would go again ;)
I am wondering whether the way we view the game isn't just simply very different. It seems that you very much appreciate the way information (or what I would call "the story", since it's kind of a chain of events) is conveyed, the way you discover all these secrets just by exploring that home. Kind of a "the travelling is the goal" kind of approach?
For me, that's not the important aspect. The travelling is nice, but I want to know what the destination is. Who are these people? What happened here? Why is everyone gone? I found the answers to these questions to be lacking. I didn't find any of the family members paricularly likable (that includes the silent sister the player is impersonating). I didn't find the way Sam's "secret" was handled particularly inspiring. And I found the "final message" rather terrible (it left me more annoyed than actually gleeful).
But obviously, all of this is open to dispute. I also don't mean to poop in your pool here by talking badly about something you felt was a great experience, so I really hope it doesn't sound that way. I find the points you made totally valid, your experience was just wildly different from mine.