Likewise, I played for hours and actually enjoyed it. I also really loved Adventure, Superman and similar.
That second linked article (npr.org) is a really interesting read about E.T.'s programmer and his experience during and after making the game, although the story ends a bit abruptly. TLDR; he loved being a rockstar programmer for Atari and was paid millions, but had to move on and find a career/life afterwards. Spoiler alert: he went on to become a SV therapist, helping others with similar experiences. Somehow, the whole thing feels prescient for a lot of current-day devs on the eve of "The Great AI dev takeover".
On his perspective around the game itself, a couple of quotes of particular interest:
"There's a difference between frustration and disorientation," he says. "Video games are all about frustration. It's OK to frustrate a user. In fact, it's important to frustrate a user. But you don't want to disorient the user."
Also, this resonates:
"Spielberg looks at me and he goes, 'Couldn't you just do something like Pac-Man?'"
I remember playing the game with an older family member looking on. As was apparently the case with Spielberg, his eyes absolutely glazed over. But, he got a real kick out of watching me play Space Invaders and laughed out loud as the aliens sped up.
So, the gameplay itself was the biggest complaint about the game. There's a YT video that gets more into the gameplay issues, with matching visuals. [0]
In any case, it's insane that he went from concept to finished game in only 5 weeks.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj7iICS64iI