I thought this was a really interesting game! It got me to the point of mapping out the connections between rooms in Excel, and eventually just trying random combinations to see if I got anywhere. I think that can definitely represent the main character's fruitless search for whatever they came here to find. I also enjoyed how the connections between rooms get a little bit strange. I'd be very interested to see what the map Inform gives you in the Index looks like, because there's definitely something interesting going on here.
I do also want to mention, though, that I think there is a bit of a disconnect between the way that the player expects to play the game and what the game parses. For the big example, I tried a command that I think should have gotten me the ending immediately after I talked to the old man, but it turns out the parser expects you to phrase it in a very exact way. I don't want to go more into detail in the comments because there's no spoiler function on itch, but feel free to DM me if you want to know more! Also, I don't think it's immediately clear that you're supposed to go north on the first two screens. You might want to make it clearer that you're supposed to go north or, again, add extra synonyms (e.g. "go in" or "enter" at the entryway should probably just take you to the main entrance.
Lastly, I just noticed this while I was trying extra commands out, but I think it's really funny that the old man is considered inanimate by Inform. I also tried to sit on the chair and not only did Inform not know the chair existed, it assumed I was trying to sit on the old man!