You are missing the context as we didn't know it was going to be a 4 hour race when it started. A lot of the event was dealing with the guess work and having the commentators look for things to fill in the time. It was honestly more of an event to be part of at the time. I think the parts you pointed out make for a good highlight session, but there's no way of experiencing exactly why it's such an historic race after the fact.
I'd say the same is true of Brazil 2008, it's not a very exciting race to watch now, but live it was nail biting with a crazy ending. Still fun to watch the end, but we know Massa lost the championship going in so lacks the impact.