One of the fundamental problems with the type of games you described is the parser, ie. the engine which interprets the keyboard input. For true freedom, it would have to include a highly sophisticated AI which would be capable of understanding any given line of natural English. The titles mentioned had a pretty limited parser which required you to solve puzzles with the exact phrases designers had in mind (with possibly a few alternative phrases), shifting your focus from what to perform to how to perform it. It became quite irritating if you couldn't find the right words (anyone remember the hair rejuvenator in Larry 2?).
A mouse-driven interface, in my opinion, gives you more freedom since you don't have to worry about your choice of command words but lets you think about the puzzle itself instead.
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