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"There is a pointy stick here" does exactly the same.
It is possible to make the same assumptions about the player or character with or without using second person. By eliminating "you" from descriptions you don't solve the problem - and, as KaVir pointed out, you lose some immersiveness points.
Consider the following three examples:
It reminds you of a light bulb.
It resembles a light bulb.
It looks like a light bulb.
All three sentences make the same assumptions - namely that the player (or character) has seen a light bulb before, and that they consider whatever they're looking at to be similar for some reason. They differ in the degree of involvement for the reader/player. I find the first one strongest emotionally, the last one completely neutral (even boring).
Dynamic descriptions get the best of both worlds, even if they are limited to what the game knows about your character. If the game mechanics have no way of knowing you're glancing at the walls or your group member's cleavage instead of the pointy stick, it won't make a difference whether the stick's description uses "you" or not. Because, how would you know there's a pointed stick there?
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