To be fair, even if Nethack hasn't materially changed in the last few years, there are many other roguelikes - both extremely similar to Nethack, and more polished modern commercial games.
I suspect now the devteam have sorted various admin issues, new features will be released.
I've only ascended once, and I save scummed, so it doesn't count.. Generally I prefer to play either as a Gnomish wizard, or an archaeologist (I like tunneling).
I'd recommend checking out DoomRL if anyone hasn't already, it's very silly and a lot of fun.
