I found it surprisingly difficult to put into words without writing a thousand page essay...

It's not the video really. As far as 80's videos go, it's bad, but it's not that bad. The problem is the huge theatrical mini-opera style already pushes everything to the limit. The thing about Steinman is that he can get up to that line between super-stimulus and farce and stay just the right side of it, so even though you know it's ridiculous, you can still take it seriously.

Adding the video on top pushes it to just the wrong side of that line and the whole thing falls down under it's own weight.

And, of course, like Declan Sinnot once said "If you want to know what a song means the writer is the last person you should ask. They never get it right", but that applies to all videos, not just this one.