Sure, there are all styles of writing, and who is really to say how much description is required to set the scene and how much is too much? If you're going to provide a lot of description, though, you'd better be damned good at it, or you risk boring the reader.

As for adverbs (and adjectives) a lot has been said here about what's wrong with stuffing too many into a sentence or paragraph: it leads to unfocused, hard to digest work.

I think also that the heavy use of adverbs and adjectives is simply lazy writing. Often bland writing too. To use your sentence example, doesn't someone "creaking open the box" imply that the box is being slowly opened while also appealing to an additional sense (hearing), thereby vivifying the moment better?

I think the character should leave the box alone. Who knows what dangerous plot devices may lurk within?

Tom

Or think outside the envelope, push the ground, and hit the box running.

Admittedly "creaking" a box open is unusual, but I think of it as onomatopoeia. Better to be adventurous with verbs than to be humdrum with adverbs, IMO.

I have similar concerns.
I put my opening chapters on the site in May. Some people loved it and others didn't. It got to 14th in the charts.
I edited and re-edited and submitted various versions based on comments received. Now, four months later, everyone seems to like (not love) it, and it was recently recommended by Reco.
Net result - it has now reached 14th in the September charts - which is exactly where it started.
Is it any better than it was? - possibly. But those changes might have been made anyway when I edited the finished book.
I have spent months of editing, when I could have been writing, and like you I wonder if in the process I have lost something of what made the book mine.

I agree the worry is about losing your voice.
It's best to keep an open mind and not end up being dogmatic about these things.
Sometimes it's obvious when an adjective or adverb is not needed, but that may be for more than one reason. Recently while editing I found two unnecessary examples in my own work:
He shook his head slowly and silently
and
He wondered silently. .
Clearly both silentlies are expendable. Laughably.
However, I'm not convinced that he creaked open the box is better than he slowly opened the box. For a start, they don't mean exactly the same thing, plus the box would do the creaking because of some action he did (slowly opened perhaps??) and the whole thing smacks of a desperate attempt to avoid using a perfectly acceptable adverb.
After all he slowly opened the box is pure simple language which is what our subconscious language instinct would have us use to express that concept, and while it may not be lofty poetic prose it still does its job. Adequately.
Depends what style you're aiming for in any particular context.

I'm not sure this is such a good metaphor. After a reckless attempt to make spicy BBQ ribs at the weekend, I know exactly what food with too much spice is like. Namely:

Whereas trying to read a story stuffed full of adverbs is more like:

My suggestion for a replacement: adding water to whisky. A few drops brings out the flavour, too much and your story loses its fire.

OK, I'm sure others can do better than that, but you get the idea...

Tom