A. There are a lot of threads where people say the game isn't challenging enough.
B. There are also a lot of threads where people say certain parts of the game are a major annoyance: IE assigning jobs to an army of migrants, or managing your food and barrel stocks.
Typically, the popular community response seems to be "Well how can you say B, and then go and say A?"
In other words, it seems to be a popular opinion that much of the "challenge" of DF is figuring out the difficult interface, and the more annoying menial tasks that have to be performed, like managing migrants.
The point of my post is to say that the game of dwarf fortress is not figuring out how to play dwarf fortress. I feel that for many in the community, they like that DF is difficult to learn and play, because it makes them feel special that they were able to learn it. Therefore any efforts made to make it easier to play are cheapening the work they put into learning the game. In other words, making dwarf fortress easier to play does not make dwarf fortress easier. It makes it more accessible. Overcoming boredom and frustration is (I hope) not the intended metagame of DF.
So I'm gonna say something that will probably make a lot of people here mad: Being able to play dwarf fortress does not prove you are super intelligent. It doesn't take amazing brainpower to learn and play this game. It simply takes time and effort. All that time and effort spent learning the game is simply a barrier to the game itself. The game would be better if it were easier to play.
The game of dwarf fortress is where you take 7 dwarves, and carve out a fortress, expanding and fending off your enemies, while amassing wealth and even more enemies, and eventually building a thriving mountainhome. That will be expanded in future releases, but even just that is a hell of a game.
The game of dwarf fortress is not where you press 'u', scroll through to find the dwarf who isn't doing anything, and assign him a job. It is not where you get the dreaded message "A new wave of migrants has arrived", and in a time consuming and boring process, assign each one a job, with no way of referencing who has what job, and what jobs have already been assigned, and which jobs are needed. I continue to use migrants as my point because they are, from the point of view of the game itself, a great boon, and a sign of progress of your fort. However, from the point of view of the user and the interface, they are a 10 minute exercise on trying to remember what jobs you need done, and what jobs you already have assigned. Thank Armok for dwarf therapist...
Now, make no mistake. I love the depth of the game of dwarf fortress. I wouldn't want to simplify the game in any way. In fact, I'd love to see more complexity, which it seems like I will continue to get in future releases. However I would love to simplify the interface. If it were possible to just think of what I want my dwarves to do, and have them do it, I would be thrilled. The interface is simply a (necessary) barrier between the player and the game.
TLDR; Dwarf fortress is not a way to prove you are a more evolved gamer than someone who plays COD or WOW, or whatever other mainstream game is popular to hate on. Dwarf Fortress is an amazingly deep and complex game, which stands perfectly well on its own two feet as a great game. The interface need not be some form of hazing to seperate the "true gamers" from the dreaded "casuals". Toady isn't making this masterpiece for gaming elitists to show off their e-peen.
Also, thank you Toady, for such an amazing game. You are truly an inspiration.