I almost prefer it, I think! It felt much more like a proper story game with a challenge rather than the modern result of "The Sims, but dwarves". A single Z-level may be too austere today, so perhaps a modern iteration could use the same layout but with three or four Z-levels. I wonder if there's a way to replicate that today with some map editing...

The real trouble I had with the old versions was the inability to build walls. As I recall, once you dug something out it was dug forever.