An important difference between a torch and a flashlight, which you noted, is a torch is omnidirectional. What other omnidirectional sources of light are people familiar with? Campfires. Ever sit at a campfire on a dark night and look into the woods? What can you see? That's right... squat. A torch, unlike a flashlight, is always in your eyes. It's impossible to keep your night vision. Any space it does not light up will be pitch black. A great movie to watch for ideas is The Burrowers, a kind of Lovecraft/Cowboy/Horror movie.
Same goes for continual light and most every DnD light source except maybe a shuttered lantern, and since when do PCs think to pay for those?
So keep this in mind when determining what the PCs can see. They can see 20 feet away, 20 to 40 feet is indistinct, colorless. Beyond that is pitch black. You may even want to lessen the typical radius. This means they can't see down corridors. They can't see into the next room. If the non-torch bearer pokes their head around a wall they can't see the thing about to rip their face off.
Hollywood, and ubiquitous illumination, has trained us to think that dark isn't very dark. Indoors is pitch black. Outdoors totally depends on the phase of the moon, so keep track!
Racial night vision? Blinded while the torch is lit. Doesn't matter what the rules say, just make it so. Now the PCs have a motivation for putting the torches out and leaving the poor humans blind.
Torchlight carries way farther than the torch bearer can see, and you see the torch bearer distinctly from far away. This will attract lots of "fun" things. Smarter monsters can even use this to their advantage, seeing the PCs coming from far away, probably noisily talking and clanking, they can set up an ambush. Maybe, with no warning, spears and arrows fly out of the darkness! Punish the PCs for being so visible and so blind.
Torchlight, unless you're right up close to something, doesn't let you see very well. When a PC without their own light source is examining something, make the description indistinct. Make them want to get their face in real close to have a good look. Maybe brush their hand over it. Best way to find out it's a green slime. :-)
Things can hide in the darkness, but not always monsters. Pickpockets, spies, poisonous insects... all sorts of creepy crawlies can take advantage of the PCs being A) nearly blind and B) totally lit up.
Finally, there's lots of ways to get rid of the PC's light source. In combat, moving around wildly, there's always a chance of it blowing out. If the character gets hit, maybe they drop it... into a puddle. Maybe they drop it into something flammable. Maybe they need both hands to cast a spell or wield their weapon.
D&D 4th edition is a tactical, combat-focused RPG...
The whole of 4th edition ruleset by and large is devoted to the balance and intricacies of tactical, grid-based combat. There are exceptions, such as rules for skill challenges and other Role Play aspects of the game (vs. roll play). To both maximize the benefits of 4th edition and actually run it correctly you need to run combats on a grid of 1" squares. Every single player attack and ability is based around this precept.
Lastly, the example you gave in comments, The PAX celebrity game, was run this year using 5th edition/D&D Next rules (which you and your players can download for free!). D&D Next is focused on trying to incorporate aspects from all previous D&D editions into one, harmonious and equally customizable edition. D&D Next works very well for theater of the mind.
Best Answer
Exploring is fun!
For me, dungeon crawling is not about choices, it is about thriller, mystery, and discovering new stuff.
It is not about choosing between Door A or Door B for a goat or a car, it is about finding out what is behind each and every door. Ultimately, I will open all doors, whatever the order I choose.
Simply stating
is already thrilling. Is there a trap in the corridor? Is a really challenging monster waiting for them in the end? Should we go back to the village and live happily as farmers? ME IS SCAR'D.
Note that this description contains no choices at all, except for whether they want to keep going or not.
So, to emphasize, for me, dungeon crawling is less about the choices I make, and more about what treasures will I find? What monsters will I defeat? What level will I be when I clear this?
So, overall, the problem I see with your description is not that they provide no choice, but rather that they are... too plain. "You see an empty room with two doors." is, indeed, a MEH description, and I would simply go with it and say "Sure I open the right one" with 10% less interest than before.
If, on the other hand, you describe something along Nuclear Wang's suggestions, it may be more interesting. Even if it is ultimately meaningless, create suspense and excitement. One door is worn out, with some holes on it, is that an arrow? oh, the other door is shiny and perfectly safe. Wait, is that door a mimic? Oh that explains it.
Exciting choices
Sometimes, the choice matters, however, and decision making is important and thrilling. An example from my favorite controversial 5e adventure - Curse of Strahd. SPOILERS FROM THE DEATH HOUSE BELOW.
In an underground dungeon, in the Death House, the characters find a room with a Statue depicting Strahd himself, with an Orb in one hand and petting a Wolf in the other hand.
Every time, my players instantly enter the dilemma: SHOULD WE TOUCH IT? - note that a lot of tension has already been built up in the adventure so far, with many things that they touch becoming Animated Armors or Mimics and trying to kill them, or summoning ghosts enraged by them touching their belongings.
However, until they try something, they do not know what is going to happen. Are we going to die? Is it going to trigger a trap? Or is it going to open a secret door with a mountain of treasures? Should we risk it even though we have depleted half of our resources already, or should we leave it alone?
Give them constant findings, good or bad
So, previous sections said, this is what I will usually do: most rooms have something. Not necessarily a combat, and not necessarily a treasure, but something. Maybe just an almost harmless trap, maybe a small token of reward (small amounts of gold or that one potion of healing they were eager for after a tough combat), maybe a jump scare (A SKELETON SHOWS UP AT YOUR FACE. AAAAAAAAAA. Oh, nevermind, it is just a dead, regular skeleton. False alarm.)
Particularly in (modern) D&D, Dungeon Crawling is mostly about combats and treasures, and I know this holds for many other systems. So, if you go dungeon crawling, you are probably expecting a whole bunch of combats, and a whole bunch of rewards. For many people, that is actually the fun part, not the doors you chose until you arrived at Smaug's lair.