One point that Jordan Mechner makes is the limitations made the game better. The whole idea of the mirror guy as an antagonist was inspired by these limitations. Here's someone who is actually in the game world (not just in cutscenes or a final boss battle) that would manipulate the environment to frustrate your efforts to escape.

And then some extra memory was found so guards were added, and the ports had even less limitations and could reach a larger audience. But the original limitation inspired creativity that might otherwise never have been.