To be fair, these implementations are only poor in your opinion. And your suggestion might be poor in other ways. For example, I would suspect far fewer people

To be fair, these implementations are only poor in your opinion. And your suggestion might be poor in other ways. For example, I would suspect far fewer people are willing to invest upfront in a game like yours. It's much easier to find two people who want to play chess against each other where they are fully in control, than two groups getting only one single, slow game out of it. One way a more thoughtful, strategic game like yours might work would be to achieve critical mass with a simpler, fast paced game and then add depth.