I think something that gets overlooked, or underappreciated, a lot when reading and writing IF is that authors are (mostly, anyway) telling the story they want to tell, they’re writing the way they want to write, and focusing on the things they find interesting as individuals; while a lot of us do have wriggle room when it comes to making changes, especially in wips and ongoing projects, there are going to be certain things that happen, certain themes present, certain scenes that get deliberately omitted, whether consciously or unconsciously, that some readers might not agree with. Especially with the shift towards more set MCs in IF that’s happening now, there is going to be more evidence of the author’s preferences present in games, and that may not be entirely popular with everyone.
While I think it’s fair enough (and I’d actively encourage more of this attitude) to say “this isn’t for me” and move on, I also think there’s definitely some value in learning to analyse authorial intent in what you’re reading, and measure that against your expectations/desires. The author may not be writing the story you think you’re reading; you may not be reading the story the author thinks they’re writing. This doesn’t mean either of you are wrong - just that you’re different people, with different experiences.
Personal taste, individual interpretation, and authorial intent don’t always align; this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I can only speak for myself, but it’s good when media forces you to change the way you think, to put yourself outside yourself for a little while. Yes, there’s a lot of space for reader-inserts in IF, but that is neither a staple nor a requirement of the genre, and as with any media, the characters (including the main/player character, regardless of how much of a blank slate they are) are narrative aspects of the story they participate in, not real, living people with their own inner lives.
Generally, we have plans, and reasons for doing things the way we do - especially when it comes to unfinished games. You’re never required to read something that makes you uncomfortable, but there are times where the discomfort is an intentional by-product of the story that’s being told. IF isn’t a form of collaborative storytelling; it isn’t an exercise in word count or variability, and it isn’t a vehicle for dating sims. It can be those things, but primarily it is just another way to write stories, and the horizons of those stories are defined by the author. By nature, we won’t all agree on what is good and what is bad, what is missing or lacking and what is unnecessary, but disagreement is not the same as poor writing on the author’s side or lack of comprehension on the reader’s.
