[Kylotan]

There's always some correlation between quality and success. Although your favourite MUD has some features you like, you've also stated some significant problems with it, so it's not surprising that it hasn't taken off.

Another thing about MUDs is that there's very little attempt to grow the market. Promotion is usually done within the MUD scene itself, which isn't exactly booming, and many MUD admins are reluctant to take the steps to move beyond it for fear of alienating the core audience. (eg. to move away from 16-colour fixed text, or to include sound and images, or to procedurally generate content rather than have builders hand-craft every bit.)