A strong concept and implementation will overcome art limitations. Just look at the success of Rimworld for example, which has sold over 1m copies - or of course Minecraft (150m copies sold).
Do you think I could maybe enjoy Dwarf Fortress?!
Honestly though try adventurer mode in DF, it's like LOTR meets Nethack. Or try fortress mode, and have fun! [1]
If you haven't played other traditional roguelikes besides Nethack, I'd recommend giving them a shot. Brogue and Shiren The Wanderer are both focused on resource management and exploiting monster/item properties, which you'll have seen some of in Nethack. DCSS is more about streamlined tactical and strategic decision making in a dungeon.
Only in fortress mode. Dwarf Fortress has two modes, and the second (Adventurer mode) is like an open-world nethack.
Because it roughly simulates thousands of years of activity and tracks them, you can read about a Human Necromancer, the books he wrote, and his disciples. You can follow the dwarf that killed him, see that he gave up being a poet after his wife and child were killed by Zombax Warfbringer, the bronze colossus, and joined the army before cutting his way through zombies into the tower. Of course, he looted books (his past as a poet) and read them - giving him the secrets of life and death! So whoops he's now a necromancer. Oh well!
Because it roughly simulates every organ and layer of flesh on every limb of every creature and stores them in a combat log, you can read about how a Dwarven Axelord sliced off the left pinky toe of a Human Necromancer. You can track where that pinky toe flew into the face of another dwarf, distracting him just long enough to be impaled by a skeleton. So whoops now he's bleeding out. Oh well!
The main thing about DF is that it is full of bugs and/or strange coding artefacts. You need to have a kind of hacker mentality to play it because it's a massive puzzle to figure out how to do anything. It's surprisingly rewarding because you often think, "I wonder if X is possible" and after you hack away for a while you discover that it is. Or after you hack away for a while you discover that something even more wonderful is hiding away in there, the product of some weird unplanned generative properties of the massive game engine.
For me, it's really this latter thing that is most compelling about the game. In Nethack it's said that the developers thought of everything. In DF it's more like the game engine has so much complexity that it has taken on a life of its own. I doubt there is any game that has the depth that DF has, but you have to tease out that depth.
I think the game is well worth playing, though whether or not you will like it depends on a number of things. It is a massive time sink and requires endless fiddling, planning, and grinding. Sometimes it feels like a chore to play. But it is also massively rewarding. It depends a lot on the person.