After running some of the Season Eight Adventurer's League mods, I am definitely in favor of boxed text.
Have you looked at Dungeon of the Mad Mage? It doesn't use boxed text.
Injecting "you" into boxed text is almost a guaranteed recipe for an epic fail. Using scripted events is even worse. And then not having any room description from that "brilliant light" makes you wonder what the writer of the boxed text was thinking.
2. Great Hall of the Brigands
As you open the unlocked door to this chamber, you find yourself peering into total darkness. Suddenly, the darkness is pierced by a brilliant light, and you hear the twang of many bowstrings!
Injecting "you" into boxed text is almost a guaranteed recipe for an epic fail. Using scripted events is even worse. And then not having any room description from that "brilliant light" makes you wonder what the writer of the boxed text was thinking.
I've read twice the frst boxed set you quoted and I'm still wondering what is wrong with it. From what I understand, the characters open the door into a chamber which is dark and fall into an ambushed set by archers, perhaps with the use of a light spell. I expect the characters would focus more on the sound of the bowstrings to avoid being shot than on the fact that the room has three chairs and a chest or whatever. There is nothing prohibiting the DM from adding further information once the beginning of the encounter is set up.
In fact, I believe adding a room description would distract from the urgency of the situation - the PCs are under attack!
The way I think about scene setting is similar to a chapter in a book. The first page or so of the chapter typically immerses the reader in the location, setting the mood, describing the environment etc etc. After that the reader is assumed to have that picture in their head and the action resumes. So some lengthy (2 or 3 paragraphs) boxed text at the beginning of an adventure/extended sequence of encounters is OK with me as it helps to set the mood. (And I have a habit of not setting the scene well enough, jumping into the action a bit prematurely so I, at least, could do with some encouragement in that department). But a randomly long piece of exposition in the middle of the action? No thanks!
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So one thing I try to do is roll out important information throughout the scene, not just up front. Boxed text gives us the impression (or me at least, at one time) that you get it all out, then the PCs do their thing. When really, we have to look at the play loop: DM describes the environment, players describe what they want to do, DM narrates the results of the adventurers' actions. Then repeat. The repeating is the key thing. We should be describing the environment several times over in any given scene, at least what has changed in terms of scope of options that are now available, plus any additional mood-setting we might want to slip in now instead of all up front. By the time the scene is done and you're moving on to the next thing, those important mood-setting elements are in play. And if they aren't, the loop continues!
By doing it this way, we're building on the scene as we go, continually reinforcing the thematic elements we want to include rather than doing it in the beginning and hoping it sticks.