Yep, using a pointer minus screen reader support is something of a nightmare, even with a small amount of vision. I've recently had several run ins with such things.
i think Max shrapnel was supposed to be an audio game in the Halo style, but with all the shinanigans surrounding Alchemy, I'm not certain what's happened to this game at all.
I do think considerably more could be done with audio games, particularly in game genre's that aren't merely based upon reacting to immediate danger but have stratogy or exploration and plot elements.
I deffinately think features like scanning haven't been taken as far as they could be, probably because of the old trouble about lack of resources.
I really hope audio game maker will keep going as a project upto the point where it is possible to create complex games with new features, such as a 2D platform game with overhead scanning for ledges, or a slightly more involved stratogy game.
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)