I had a long and favorable look at IF/text adventures and have to say, nope it's not that big a thing some people make it. Yes, focussing on content instead of big explosions is what increases depth and the kind of beauty I also like. But the IF world is wrong that it must be pure text. A game like Dwarf Fortress for example can tell a lot of its story without text. You see your dwarfs moving towards the goblins, nobody needs to explicitly write it down for you and prompt you for an interaction. Shadow Run Returns is a X-Com like tactics game, but it also has a lot of text adventure influence with all its heavy dialogue with different choices etc. And by adding these other elements together with text based story and depth, you get something more deep and more efficient.

Text is not a game. It's a feature. Depth is not a game. It's a feature. A puzzle or labyrinth is not a game. It's a feature. Make games by smartly combining (multiple!) features!