The thing is, DF is stable. For every two people that quit there will be 2-4 newbies to fill their shoes. When DF looses a credit buyer, someone else decides to buy a few to give themselves an edge.
A lot of people believe that you shouldn't fix it if it isn't broken, while DF may indeed be woefully broken from the players point of view, it is still working the way it is meant to.
Neil has a steady flow of new players, and a reasonably steady flow of CC nubs doing what CC nubs do.