There might actually be more to the "if it's niche, some people are more interested in it" mentality. It's anecdotal, yes, but I know that I have an odd tendency to prefer games that aren't hyper popular. New Call of Duty or Halo? I don't care how "well made" the game is, I won't play it. A tiny, unknown RPG/Rhythm game hybrid (Sequence)? I gobble it up. All my friends start playing one game? I play another. Etc. I wonder how many people might have some unconscious tendency to gravitate toward those games which are no very popular, or if I'm just an oddball.
Maybe DF being a niche helps in some way. I don't know. But I do know that the UI is, almost objectively, not good. I know it's why I stopped playing. Once you get more than 20 dwarfs or so, managing who does what is ridiculous. (at least without external tools. I think the popularity and almost necessity of some external tools really does show that the UI can be atrocious at some points. (also note this is not a comment on the ASCII nature of the game, that's fine))
Maybe DF being a niche helps in some way. I don't know. But I do know that the UI is, almost objectively, not good. I know it's why I stopped playing. Once you get more than 20 dwarfs or so, managing who does what is ridiculous. (at least without external tools. I think the popularity and almost necessity of some external tools really does show that the UI can be atrocious at some points. (also note this is not a comment on the ASCII nature of the game, that's fine))