I guess I lean more towards an emphasis on story, though for me the best puzzles are always those that have an impact on the story. One very recent example was from Deponia 4, where one specific puzzle that started innocently enough (you need to satisfy the needs of some NPCs to get the game to move on) turns into the catalyst of the cataclysmic events that are at the heart of the underlying plot. Personally, I did not see that coming at all, and was absolutely flabbergasted (but also widely amazed) at what I just had caused, unwillingly.
It’s situations like these, when story and puzzles become indistinguishable from each other, that I like most.
I think a book has the one great advantage that it can concentrate entirely on the story. In an adventure game, the very gameplay mechanic that is the game’s heart and soul is actively hindering the story from progressing, by throwing those pesky puzzles into the path of the player 
. So the stalwart game designer needs to reconcile two things that are at odds with each other. In a way, I can understand how this inevitably leads to the modern Telltale-style games, where story is first and foremost, with barely enough interactivity left to call the beast a game. At the other end of the spectrum are games like The Witness; nearly all puzzle, not much of a story. Classic P&C adventures are somewhat of a middle-ground, sometimes leaning a bit more towards puzzles, sometimes more towards story, but never one without the other. And that’s how it should be, if you ask me 
It’s a sandbox, which TWP isn’t. It’s also much larger and more content-rich to begin with.
I can see your initial point, though, about the desolation that sets in as you exhaust any possible interaction. I guess one way to deal with that is to actually close off depleted areas to the player. That’s what a lot of adventures actually do, by moving the player from area to area, always forward, never back. If that’s not what you want (and it also does not appear to be Ron’s style), the only other way is adding more interaction. But that does not come cheap, and I guess that’s often the issue: everything not strictly required for the core game is not feasible to implement. Games chock-full of stuff like U7 therefore are rare these days, sadly.