Thanks for your post! In terms of game dev experience and age, we seem to be similar; I also did most of my text adventuring in my teens to early twenties, which was about 20 years ago. :)
Looking again at the door-opening sequence, I can see a couple of places where I could've dropped more and/or more obvious clues as to what needs to be done. I'll probably go back and modify those parts later, but I'm also thinking about writing up a full walkthrough, as you suggest, but separate from the game. I'll link to it on the game's page, and possibly offer a link within the game, maybe once all hints for an area have been exhausted.