In a lot of ways the cruftiness of vassal is a filter function- if you're not willing to put in the effort to learn vassal, you're not likely to have the motiva

In a lot of ways the cruftiness of vassal is a filter function- if you're not willing to put in the effort to learn vassal, you're not likely to have the motivation to play the kind of complicated games for the amount of time it takes to reach completion that vassal was made for. An upsurge in popularity caused by something like a Steam sale would probably kill the community, or at least change it beyond recognition.