edit: oh, the painful memories.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SqKTBE0yC0
If it doesn't, I'll play it. I'm an adult now, and there are many more games on the market; I simply don't have time anymore for games that let me eat the pie.
Didn't do X? Can't get Y, no matter how bad you want it.
Most especially so when the game warns you in obscure ways. Plays which reward the player for being investigatory.
Example : A placed readable book on the shelf warns player not to do X if they want Y far before the decision comes about. Or the player has a bad premonition or dream about it. Foreboding which has obvious intent once that player has passed the threshold of no return.
It was stated earlier in the thread, but I think there is real value to setting an atmosphere in a game which rewards the player for being cautious, but curious. For example, the pie you're talking about had no real obvious use until the mob which requires it, right? Unless inventory space becomes an issue, a cautious player would likely hold on to that pie until faced with a challenge where they've tried other avenues. The type of player which tries every item in their inventory to succeed definitely isn't the target for this mechanics.
Reminds me of the colored potion system in nethack.
The real world follows this rule, too. Economists call it "time preference."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment
It's actually a series I'd recommend, as long as you have the time.
I think 90's era adventure games are looked at with rose colored glasses. A lot of the time, these games were non-intuitive and won thru repetition ("try everything") rather than logic.
Case in point: http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/79.html [this is the last page of a 3 page article, but you'll get the point]