Back then, I didn't pay much attention to the score, as I concentrated on the adventure. However, when it was over, checking it out was informative of how much of the game I had let pass by, thus sometimes I would play it again to see what I had missed.
Personally, if I implemented a score system, I would not subtract points for wrong moves - as the player also has fun by trying out silly ideas and getting a clever remark from the main character or something of the sort. Since I'm not the kind of player that would be checking score often (for me the fun it's in the story itself), the amount of points I got per puzzle solved would not matter, just an the average (... out of 150) to be informed of what I'd missed.
Here's a curious approach (to indicate progress) I found in
this post:
In Grim Fandango there was a carved-looking drawing on the save game screen, and when you saved or loaded a game, if your game was further along then more of the drawing would be visible and fully focused, while the rest was dim or perhaps completely dark (can't remember now). The drawing itself was of a four year journey of a soul through the 8th underworld, quite parallel to Manny's journey, but with a sense that it's universal to all soul who pass. Later, that drawing also appeared in the game somewhere, something which made the save load screen even more symbolic. Amazing how little parallels and connections can make a difference.