I haven't really authored anything in either, but looking at these I have the opposite feeling... I much prefer that the "code" and "display text" are syntacti

I haven't really authored anything in either, but looking at these I have the opposite feeling... I much prefer that the "code" and "display text" are syntactically distinct in Dialog and older Inform. One could imagine syntax highlighting making that distinction even clearer. Instead in Inform 7 they blend together into similar-looking natural language sentences.