Agreed. A funny and entertaining story in one medium does not necessarily translate 1:1 to a different medium. However, there are things that cinematic storytelling does differently (arguably better, though that's a personal preference) than experiential storytelling. One area that an adaptation of Portal could focus on which was (intentionally) de-emphasized by Valve is the potential for mind-bending visual trickery and bonkers shot compositions. Not that these things were totally absent from the game, but Valve's longstanding refusal to move away from a limited first person perspective put a hard ceiling on what they could accomplish visually. A filmmaker who doesn't have that same bugaboo could probably do some pretty cool stuff with the concept.

Of course, interesting visuals don't mean the adaptation will be good, but at least there's an avenue for doing something with the property that the games did not explore.

I feel like you could make a decent to good mini/series about Portal. There's plenty of lore, and if whoever made it tied into Half-Life somehow, that would be even cooler (it could probably literally just be a quick mention of Black Mesa or something on a whiteboard somewhere).

Each episode could be a "test chamber" or two, and each episode ramps up the action, stakes, and questions.

Tease Ratman; maybe the Cake; make the turrets extra little characters (kinda like the Battle Droids in TCW); maybe even have some Personality Cores to provide some extra opinions/dialog about what's going on, like Wheatley, but more than just him.

Edit: I bet J.K. Simmons would be up for coming back for more Cave Johnson shenanigans. Idk about live action, but some more recordings would be fun.