Awful? Those few minutes of example show more player agency than the entirety of Loom combined. This is not a novel criticism- it was one of the main complaints levelled against Loom when it first came out.
There's a difference between text you read, and text you have to guess at/type (ie, the find-the-synonym frustrations of Infocom games).
Player agency in a medium without unlimited outcomes is a Choose Your Own Adventure, where the trick is done in plain sight and therefore unconvincing. Loom is just trying to tell a linear story in a convincing manner with the tools it has available, and it elevated the tools available. That's my only point.
There's a difference between text you read, and text you have to guess at/type (ie, the find-the-synonym frustrations of Infocom games).