I enjoy fake choices that cause me agony because, thanks to the deftness of the writing, I don’t yet know they’re fake choices—sometimes not even upon a second play-through. Study in Steampunk is masterful at this, I think. There was one particular place where I spent a good five minutes agonising over how to explain something to Woodward. It wasn’t until my third play-through (and a quick glance at the code) that I was sure it was as fake as a *fake_choice could get, no stats, no extra lines, nothing. The *fake_choice here was absolutely stellar, in my opinion, not just for the thought it made me put into my character, but even more so for the five minutes of worry it gave me as the reader.
I do feel that CS games can be less about the amount of choice and more about how well the illusion of amount of choice is maintained, so ‘does this craft a convincing illusion’ is at least as important a question as ‘how much does this actually branch’, I think, depending of course on the style of game and goals of the author.