Because they were bored and if you wanted to play a game, then that was what you played. So you were either a) reduced to brute forcing puzzles (use xxx look yy

Because they were bored and if you wanted to play a game, then that was what you played. So you were either a) reduced to brute forcing puzzles (use xxx look yyyy) or b) called Sierra's hint line. Thinking back, I think that might be the reason a lot of the puzzles were so obscure - to get you to spend some more $$$ to win the game. Kind of like proto-freemium.