What really irks me about Dwarf Fortress is how simple it all is, really.
I don't mean the actual underlying guff, the various simulations are all... well, they're quite simulationy and I mean that takes time.
But the UI doesn't need to do that much! You slap down rooms, dwarfs go in the rooms, you drop some tools/whatever, you designate areas for stuff, you manage relationships a little. I mean sure it grows, but the basics are pretty basic!
The last time I quit forever, I was simultaneously building and assigning bedrooms one. at. a. time. and managing warriors in a half-implemented but massively important for survival system and realized maybe I could just leave well enough alone. I understand not bothering to implement a UI. It's not his wheelhouse, and he likes implementing new and weird simulated behaviour. But I can't stand when I see the idea presented that the ridiculous interface is a sign of the complex underpinnings. It's a sign of not putting any effort into a UI, nothing else.
I mean for goodness sake, the third party dwarf-manager is a practical necessity, and that's pretty easy to use!
Programmers are a strange lot they have strengths and weaknesses remmeber unless its a bigger group doing it like open source if someone has a weakness ie UI in DF its likley to get less attention than the simulation and complexity side of things so he has left it to others to develop the third party dwarf manager elements.
Its a good game and star farer looks similiar