Thanks for playing! Exactly, it's meant to emulate exploration. It just kind of made sense to me to hide the names of rooms you haven't been to yet. I haven't played a lot of text-based games, so I'm not too familiar with the expectations they have. I very much had regular metroidvanias on my mind, where I don't think you generally have much of an impact on the world, if I'm understanding what you mean. Depends on the game, I guess.
Something I really ought to have added, and plan to add, is a map. That should help some of the navigation troubles.
If you like weird text-based games, I'm working on a concept for another game jam going on right now that I hope I can turn into something interesting.