I spent 20 minutes typing out a point by point response, but it kind of went all over the place and sucked in general so I'll respond to this:
Of course, they also might be complaining about development time they think is being "wasted", but I'll say this: If it weren't for the amount of detail this game has in it already, it wouldn't have the kind of dedicated fanbase that it does. The most popular stories, Let's Plays, etc. that have happened probably never would have, and one of its most compelling and important marketing hooks would be vacant.
#1 If DF was less complicated, it could have the same number of fans (I would bet more), they just might be different people. Battle for Wesnoth, Mount and Blade, Spelunky, ect are all indy games, with pretty low levels of detail (and pretty bad graphics). It would also have a hell of a lot more releases
#2 Boatmurdered happened in 2D DF. In 2D you always had magma, you always had HFS, you always had a river, you always had the makings for steel (I hope all that is accurate). 2D was no where near the complex beast that the current version is and way way way way way less complicated than the next version, yet it is the most famous story of DF.
I am not saying the systems aren't awesome, I am just saying they are far more complicated than they need to be, far more "realistic". I am not going to understand when my legendary armor smith gets poisoned by some vermin and dies. But I am going to get very angry and probably turn the game off for a while.
And I am going to get really tired of going through 4 pages of stone just to find Microcline because I want the statue to have blue shoes.
#1 Less detail, and less complication wouldn't be DF, it would be some other fantasy game. A good deal of fun comes from the details of DF that it has, the issue in understanding them, the triumph of mastering them.
#2 G-Flex didn't bring up Boatmurder, and there are plethora of game play stories that are not boatmurder that have been on the current more complicated 3d version. I dont see this as a rebuttal. Yes, it is the most well known, even then DF was a rather complicated game and the events that happen Boatmurder arose due to DF complexity.
A lot of the complication could be managed better with a better ability to display the information and a rebalance of marco and micro management. Its a good thing the game is in active devilment, so these issue can be addressed at later time.
Dwarf Fortress is a cool game because of the detail, because of the what it portray. There are many games that have several game play that DF, but they dont have it it combined as DF does nor the level of details.
Your turn off of DF is DF.
The game is with issues, its not perfect and due to itself, may never be, but it suppose to be a detailed fantasy world generator. The more details in the more that can be done with it. No, we dont need to know that those statues are of dwarfs spiked with microline, we dont need to know that the engraving is of a dwarf surrounded by goblins and the goblin is striking down the dwarf. We dont need to know that the oak bed is well made and banded in gold. You're right, we don't. We don't need to make make plumbing systems for wells or irrigation systems for farms. We need to know that the goblin left soak is of poor quality.
The assertion that less detail would be better, is nearly insulting to Toady, who seems to be a fairly capable game designer. If he so wanted to, he seems to be perfectly capable of making a game that a larger audience would play and makes DF in the way he does knowing that it will have a niche audience.
All the mountain of detail, and options the none restrictiveness of its implementation is what makes Slave to Armok: God of Blood II: Dwarf Fortress, Slave to Armok: God of Blood II: Dwarf Fortress.