Thanks everybody - this really was the right place to ask!
Twee: Yes, I was made aware of Anna Anthropy quite recently (through the A.V. Club’s coverage of cheap/free video games). Okay, so my hesitation against Twee disappears (and I will probably skip Twine completely).
ChoiceScript: Thanks, I’ll check those entries out. I guess I was expecting something like this - I would have been surprised if you were forced to use CoG… but since there was nothing on their web pages to even hint at a non-CoG method of distribution I had to ask.
Simple CYOA and Adventure Book: I don’t think they’re right for me (the first being too simple and the second retaining text input) but I’ll keep them in mind if I can’t use my primary options.
Undum: I had a quick peek. It did look promising, but I guess better documentation - read “more immediate help to the impatient newcomer” - would have been necessary to hook me.
chooseyourstory.com: Sorry but no; the stuff there is moderated. And if the site goes down, it would have taken my work with it.
ADRIFT: Sorry, I’m not interested in text input. Need the game to provide choices as clickable buttons or links. I’m actively uninterested in putting players in the text equivalent of pixel-bitching dilemmas like “is it OPEN DOOR WITH KEY” or “USE KEY TO OPEN DOOR”… Besides, fancy stuff like pictures or 3D maps only give me stage fright…
At the moment I’m going to go ahead with 1) Twee 2) CS
…but don’t let that stop you all from posting more suggestions!
I did google around a bit, finding these lists of resources:
members.tripod.com/~virtual_cat/ … plete.html
ifwiki.org/index.php/Categor … ing_system
…but all that did was take me from a state of knowing of no good (non-text) systems to learning about a bewildering overload of them…! Meaning your suggestions still count - I will probably not check out a system not mentioned here…