Reading this review, and looking back on my own experience and review above, I think I can see how you came to love a musical I hate so deeply. A show like this lives and dies by the delivery. Sometimes you hear the word Anaemia (you know when if you have seen the play) delivered with a haunting chill, and other times it is just shouted with an unnecessary enthusiasm akin to Kirk's infamous Kaan. I was the latter, and will not see it again.
In the beginning there was nothing, and it exploded. Terry Pratchett 35 tropes so far.
Seconding basically this whole review. I do wish the stage decorating was more visible, though I suspect some of it (the walls full of butterfly collections, in at least one production) you'd have to be practically onstage yourself to get the full effect of. A good delivery can sell you on this show for life; a bad one can completely ruin it. Having it sold to me solely as a sexual parable didn't impress me at first either, but it's not; as you said, it's about much more than that. (And even when it is exclusively about sex and masturbation — see Great Sex and A Comet On Its Way — it's dreamy and detached and lonely, not just "hey, penises, amirite?")
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As [title of show]'s Hunter Bell once said: it makes me feel feelings
Spring Awakening has been my favorite musical for several years now. I've seen it several times and am already making plans to see it again. Allow me to try and explain why I continue to be so obsessed.
A lot of people have seen the modern relevance of Wedekind's 1891 play and have sought to highlight it (and fix some of the values dissonance) by adapting it into modern times. The musical is interesting because it's the only adaption, or one of few, that decided to add a modern twist *without* changing the time period. As a result, the characters go about a tweaked version of the original story but with the addition of modern music which, unlike traditional musicals, functions more like inner monologues or fantasy sequences. (And if you like the sort of alt-/pop-rock of Duncan Sheik it's REALLY GOOD music.)
Even if the story is relatively straightforward, I still keep discovering new things within its presentation. Some of the songs bring a lot of symbolism to digest, the set seems minimal yet is full of detail (when I sat on stage once I was in awe of all the things hanging on those walls and would've loved to look longer and take in various trinkets' significance), and as is the nature of live theater there are always new actors bringing little shifts in interpretation (and awesome voices — several cast members have gone on to much bigger things, most infamously Glee).
The sexuality is often hyped (after all, Sex Sells...) but I think overall it's more about... loss of innocence. Growing up and beginning to see from an adult perspective how dark life can sometimes be — going through sexual or religious or other confusion, experiencing failure, mourning, dealing with one's own abuse or realizing how many people around you are abused. Without preaching, Spring Awakening shows how these experiences are nearly universal across cultures and times. For me, even in discussing things we *don't* like about the show it's spawned many conversations between my friends and family about things important or sensitive to us that we might not have otherwise discussed. On a less heavy note, the show also entertains me and makes me laugh and have hope.
If you enjoy coming of age stories, quirky-but-not-too-quirky theater, and/or musicals with contemporary scores, it's worth seeing this musical if it comes your way.