I think those adventure games deserve the accolade considering they really were the pinnacle of the genre, and it hasn't even really continued since then.
They died with the transition to 3D and have resurrected and blossomed into a lot of new games and subgenres like with Disco Elysium, the Tell Tale games, The Talos Principle, Life is Strange, Monument Valley, VA-11 Hall-A... even The Stanley Parable is a point and click narrative driven game.
Good call on The Stanley Parable; it does have a similar fun, nonsensical style like the old Lucas games. Disco was very interesting and I enjoy the Tell Tale games, but those don't really scratch the same itch. The others I'm ignorant about.
At any rate, those old gems still feel like the pinnacle of the genre to me.
According to that previously mentioned interview with the designers of the game, this was an oversight on their part. When they were creating the game, they had instant access to any area of the game, so the thought never occurred to them to put in a save or password feature. It wasn't until after the game was finished