Hello Damiac!
The way I see it, there were actually two starting points for this thread:
1. Going 3D graphics
2. Going main stream/commercial.
Personally, I am thankful that Toady One stays true to his vision and does not go main stream or sell out his game to, for instance, EA. A lot of the aspects we have in the game would probably be curbed in that change. For instance, the sheer amount of detail the player is confronted with is probably something the marketing specialist would consider a problem, so that a decrease in detail/complexity is likely to happen, in order to make the game "user-friendly". Then there is the connecting to content from popular franchises of the same corporation and things targetting special interest groups. Worse, you may also find the deactivation/removal of features so they can be sold as separate upgrade kits...
And if the target audience is to be anything other than 18+ then you would see so much censorship and cleansing that you would probably not recognize the game at all...
As for the 3D graphics, my personal preference again lies on the opposite side of the fence, Damiac. I enjoy the current graphics a lot. In fact, I got used to the stretched ASCII tiles, so I am using a stretched curses set in order to ensure that the game does not make the tiles square (a few versions ago, it stopped allowing me to enjoy the stretched look by simply setting things in the init files). For me, 3D graphics are usually rather ugly, especially if they are (pseudo-) realistic. I don't want to see reality when I am playing such a game. Of course, if the 3D graphics were in the style of my avatar, the aesthetic point may be not so big a problem for me... :) :) :) :)
However, I also find 3D graphics in games to be very difficult to use. They easily confuse me, and make it very easy for me to miss important things. The old quarter view (I think stonesense uses that, right) is the most 3D I can deal with in any complex game. So, for me, 3D graphics would make the game unplayable, which is why I am not in favor of it.
Yours,
Deathworks