Well, the only issue I have with linear games is when my choices are few, far between and seemingly inconsequential to the storyline.
God, I hate this and it's what come the more often lately. Whatever you chose, you'll end in the same place
It's even worse when the author assume that you made what is for him the evident choice. You'll go all, "it's the start, I'll not act like a full pervert" and choose to not peek. Then two minutes later the girl refuse to talk to you because she's mad that you saw her naked. Boom, the story is killed.
For me, linear approach and with good story is better, especially if they are focusing on few characters.
Well, for me when it come to games, neither a linear nor the full grinding approach is the good one. I have nothing against a VN, but it's a story, not really a game. As for the full grinding approach, like
@DarthSeduction said, it's just the proof of a missing story.
A good game should be between the two. It have points, but you win, or loose (it's important), them according to your choices during the story. Meanwhile, the story itself evolve according to the number of points, leading to a Game Over after some times if you really did it badly. Whatever if it's in a VN style or an opened world approach. You can even have some (few) repetitive scenes, as long as the majority of the points, or the points which matter, come from the story itself.
That's the difference between, by example, Summertime Saga and Super Powered. Both are opened worlds where you chose your next action between multiple possibilities. In both, the possibilities depend of your points with the characters, but only the first one have a real story. Not a story as strong as in a VN, but at least it's a story. You advance because you've a goal and/or you want to know more, not just because you want to go further with the girl.
But, obviously, it's more difficult to do than a full grinding game, since you'll need a story. It's even more difficult than a VN, because your story will have multiple state for a same step, depending of the number of points. It's not a VN, so being at day X doesn't mean that this will happen. You don't need to write a story, but to write a story and some variations around it.
You played it well, you'll have a BJ during this scene. You were less attentive to your choice, she'll say that, if she liked you more, she would have gave you a BJ. You were a disaster, she'll don't even talk about it. You've always chose the wrong option, well, time to end the massacre, game over. And all this must be part of the story, must be take in count in the future scenes. Next time she'll give you a BJ can in fact be the first one, so you should have a "wooowww, you've made a lot of progress" as well as a "It's not so bad for someone who never sucked a dick before".
It need more works than a pure VN, but as player I found this more enjoyable because my choice have a real impact on the story. I play the story I chose, not the one imposed by the author. Once again, I have nothing against VN, but in this case don't give us choice since they'll not matter.