I get where you're coming from, as a standalone thing it would be pretty cool, but the actual explosion came when that girl finished it first and found out it was a Silent Hill teaser. Before then it was just "well this is a creepy thing" but then finding out it was attached to Silent Hill is what got everyone buzzing. At least, that's the way I remember it.
If it weren't linked to Silent Hill, it wouldn't be as significant as it is now.It would be viewed as a cool First Person horror teaser ,but there's already a lot of these(Amnesia,Outlast)
The whole hype factor came because of the Silent Hill teaser at the end.People were excited to get something as great as the team silent games.