There was at least one CYOA "competitor" series of books in which there was only a single ending in a book. And if you got to that ending, you won. Punishment for making a wrong choice involved simply being sent back to a page you had already seen. This was done in such a way that it made sense within the plot (such as going back to jail).
This always struck me as a much better way to implement a CYOA-style book: An implicit acknowledgement that you would just go back and try again if you made a wrong turn.
Interplanetary Spy (a classic for the most silly ways to die, like getting trapped in a prison bubble on the outside of a ship for the rest of your life...).
When I was 7 I read a choose your own adventure where you had to try to get to Utopia. I read through it 4 times without success, so I flipped the pages to find the picture of Utopia in the middle. Scanning through page by page, I realized there was no way to get there. Fuckers.
As a child, I was mystified by this CYOA, where I once reached an lavishly favorable ending and on further readings was unable to determine how to get to it again... Great hack.
Reminds me of the Lone Wolf series. In case anyone is interested, most of the series is available to download/read (play?) in browser:
http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books
This always struck me as a much better way to implement a CYOA-style book: An implicit acknowledgement that you would just go back and try again if you made a wrong turn.