I mostly disagree with the OP. That said, he does have some valid points. It could use some UI work. Some new properties for materials could be implemented. More integration of feedback would be nice. Open source would be even better. But I don't really want those things. Some of them would be nice, but at the end, it's Toady's project, and he's gracefully choosing to share it with us.
And it's a simulator, not a game. Stone and animal variety without completely new mechanics is fine for me. It adds flavor and realism to the game. The latest releases have made huge steps toward that goal. The world is now alive, with people traveling across the world and having hopes and dreams. Dwarf hair color, different types of trees (until recently), alcohol types, types of grass, the vast variety of animals, and many other things don't have much mechanical effect, should they not have been implemented?
There are many great mods, and I play them all the time. However, I don't want the major mods in the game. Some ideas, perhaps, and minor features, but not the mods themselves. I'd prefer the vanilla game to remain "pure". Most third-party content should be optional, if included at all. Of course some things, like the DFHack fixes, binary patches, stonesense overlay, and raw fixes, could be included, and some of them are. But Toady doesn't like including other peoples code, and it's his game. I can always download mods and utilities if i want to.
I love DF, and would love it if it had better UI, better modding support, performance improvements, multithreading, more depth, a graphics API, pretty much everything on the suggestions forum. But it's far and away the best game I've ever played, and it would be ungrateful of me to complain. I like it just as it is, and it can only get better from here.
Thank you Toady, it's been a fun ride.