There are few card tricks that can sustain a meaningful presentation. . . Ace assemblies and pick-a-card / find-a-card tricks can't. The ambitious card routine is probably one example of where the presentations are too much for the effect -- anything that starts out personifying a card ("pretend the card is someone in your life...") is a bit too much.
I agree completely. I think to have any success with cards, you have to focus on simply giving people an experience and not trying to be to "meaningful" about it. Be intriguing, be charming, be funny, etc. There are still a lot of ways you can do this, but it has to really grow out of your character and your relationship with the audience, and I think sincerity and authenticity is the key.
I suspect the problem is with the implausible nature of the presentation. As I said above, is the presentation inextricable from the effect? My haunted key presentation is about a wardrobe closet in my grandparent's house that I was afraid of when I was young. The door to the wardrobe would always be open when I woke up, despite it being closed when I went to sleep. I thought it was my older brothers trying to scare me (this was around the time that the Amityville Horror story came out). When I was a little older, I spent a couple of nights there by myself and the same thing happened despite my efforts to lock the wardrobe. During that stay, I remember hiding the key in the bottom drawer of a dresser in another bedroom (there is a lot more to the story which ties the key to the opening wardrobe). When my grandfather passed away, in a box of things he left to me such as his WW I medals (I'm a bit of a history buff) was the key... As with most "supernatural" type magic, less is more with the effect. The key turns over once in the spectator's hand, slowly. The story is personal and plausible and the key turning over makes sense as part of the story. I have the box from my grandfather with the medals where I keep the key. It is the attention to detail that makes something become a "presentation piece."
Your presentation sounds awesome! This guy had a similar story, but it was impersonal (he used the famous Winchester house, not a place meaningful to him) and devoid of any real detail. It felt like his script came stock with the effect, though I know he had written it himself. It's unfortunate, too, because this magician has a very successful career as a performer, and he's very confident in his abilities, and yet he seems blind to something even a novice like me can see. I'm not sure how to avoid that kind of thing in my own practice...