You are correct in that the beach / water was nothing special, but we did not spend any time on the beach, we just saw it as adding atmosphere to the place.

Did you manage to go on any reef tours? The reef tours to the Great Barrier Reef were the highlight of the area. It seemed that they really did not want to give you much unless you were willing to pay for it (ie several hundred dollars per person to take seaplanes or helicopters to deserted beaches or reefs), but if you did spend the money it was worthwhile.

I have also been to Lizard and Hayman, I thought, was much better - but I like to interact with people, which was limited on Lizard.

All in all, it is not an island you can do on the cheap and you need to budget an extra $300-400 per person per day on top of the room rate to make it fully enjoyable (depending on how big of an eater you are ).