I personally told Caribdis once that the freeroam scary manor in OIALT was my favorite section... I still stand by that.
Then again, I like to actually take a lot of time to play the game. Impatience is a perfectly valid playstyle... That being said, these freeroam segments do add some amount of magic to the game. It'd be boring to me if it was just another on rails VN all the time.
For the people who prefer on rails, I respect you and can wish you the best in your gaming endeavors!
I am just a few years too young (still a fossil compared to the young crowd on here) to have played the classical Point and Click Adventure Games of the 90s ( ~1987-1999 ), the only one I tried was Grim Fandango and since I was in my early teens (like 12 or 13?) , and could barely speak English ... I was not having a lot of fun with it, the Puzzles were very random, the gameplay was clunky as hell, there were no online guides available at that time, and we did not have Internet anyway. So I wasted my Xmas Wish on that Game (Kid Logic) which kinda soured the whole Genre on me. The music and humor of Grim Fandango was top notch though, haha.
The Free Roam Scenarios gave me a frustrating reminder of that, I just do not find it fun. I like Puzzles and challenge in my game, but if it is frustrating, it isn't for me. I get paid for being frustrated at work, no need to do it in my free time lol.
Also the Ren'Py Engine is just not a good fit for this kind of gameplay. It can work in a good 3D Engine with dedicated scripting and clever writing. Roki being my favourite (great on the Switch)