Absolutely.
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Isn’t that what people tend to do anyway, when they run out of ideas?
Yes - when they run out of ideas. 
But with a simplified interface they won’t even start to think: If there won’t be an obvious combination they are just trying every object in the inventory with the new discovered object.
Sounds reasonable and it would be a great argument against simplifying interface. I wish we could have some solid knowledge though, based on observation.
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Are there any books about interface design in games?
Actually, most of us might be quite experienced already in terms of the pros and cons of different point-and-click UIs.
Yes, but maybe there are references in these books to studies and/or research papers. I’m especially interested in how non-adventure gamers react on the different (adventure game) UIs.
I doubt that there are official studies which deal with this question. Maybe some companies have carried out such a study internally, but in this case we don’t have access to the respective documents. The best source for us might be adventure game developers like Ron who have observed a lot of non-adventure-gamers playing their latest in-development games. As far as I can remember, Ron has told some anecdotes about such play-tests already on the dev blog, in the podcasts - and maybe here in the forums, too. So, maybe it would already be illuminating to assemble them.
Yes, but studies for other gaming interfaces. Maybe they apply here too.
I’ve read/heard them, but if I don’t misunderstood anything the tested only with a few people and only with the SCUMM interface. So this isn’t representative. (Even if I add my observations.)
I believe eventually Ron wanted it all to turn out like at the end of the Star Trek The Next Generation episode where Scotty visits the Enterprise “d” and has a generational clash with Geordie and feels he and his techniques are outdated. In the end Geordie realises that some of Scotty´s old gear, ideas and ways to handle things are essentially timeless and they work together to solve a problem using Scotty´s old tech.
I also wish it had turned out like that with the classic adventure game PnC + verbs style.
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It’s a matter of opinion. In my opinon, the verbs interface is timeless. Maybe there are more modern UIs, but I don’t think that the verbs UI is not streamlined enough. Other GUI styles are rather too streamlined. Moreover, Ron has modernized some details of it in TWP, e. g. the alignment of the sentence line to the cursor and the transparency of the UI.
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And all those were good ideas and got used to them faster than I would have imagined. Still the old style worked well too. I still find it hard to believe that it seems intuitive to me only because I grew up with it. I mean if it hadn´t been intuitive back then I should have struggled with it there already but I didn´t because it was good and I think it still is.
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I think the interface or graphics style is less of an issue than we think for new users.
I think the average attention span has changed since the classic games were made. Not just with the next generation of kids, but all of us. Mobile games seem to be very popular, and people get used to trying a game (for free), playing for 2 minutes and moving on to something else.
People have access to so much content, that it’s a big commitment to buy a game and sit with it for hours.
As a kid It seemed like a big event to get a new game (or a new album). I would play it over and over, partly because there weren’t any other options. You didn’t have the world at your fingertips…
unless you knew some gnarly dude at MTV that tells you what’s rad and what’ll gag you with a spoon.
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The main reason I´ve reduced my purchases of physical media in recent years is the space issue. I have too much stuff and as much as I would love to hold the big vinyl of FIREPOWER and it´s ridicioulsly badass album cover in my hands I just don´t have enough room for it anymore, so a click on the spotify play button is what I have to live with now, as much as I love physical media. Same goes for games and movies. But not books. I still buy books.
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You’d switch to ebooks if you found yourself in a foreign country without any chances to buy books in your language 
Or in Canada, where even English books are really expensive because they’re mostly imports. Still, I hate the thought of using an ereader and would probably just take out a second mortgage to cover the cost 
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I would read less.
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I don’t believe that. It just seems so. IMHO the problem is that we have to deal with more and more informations. Same with games: On Steam each day are more games released than each month in the 80s. So it’s only natural that we try as fast as possible to sort out stuff that we’re not interested in. If you find a game that you like, you play it much longer. (And that’s why it is important that a game enthrall the player immediately.)
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I DON’T AGREE WITH THAT.
There are many other factors, like, you know… what were we talking about?
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As Someone mentioned above, the sensory overload has increased due to both the internet and the flood of releases. I agree with that. Speaking of a decreased attention span, on Wikipedia I read the following quote:
Schafer said that fans had been critical of Full Throttle’s relatively short length of about eight hours compared to other LucasArts games at the time which could take up to 40 hours. However, as he worked at the remaster, player expectations have changed, and he felt that Full Throttle would be much better suited at its length in 2017, comparing it to other fully polished, short games like Inside.
Actually, this is a regrettable observation.
On the other hand, a lot of games are just not very interesting. For instance, I have hardly been interested in the games from Wadjet Eye or Sierra - for whatever reason. Also, as Ron mentioned already, games with bad puzzle design decrease the overall interest in this genre of games.
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