I honestly don't like working with DirectX, no matter how nice it looks. There is so much grunt work to do to even load a texture and draw it on the screen that it isn't funny. I've worked with OpenGL (anyone who remembers my Pascal Rocks! wallpaper saw some of the source for this) for a long time even though I'm not particularly good at 3D math; I can work with and enhance Phoenix far more than I can Asphyre.

Graphics are overrated to an extent. If it is the selling point of your game then you certainly need them. However, when people still play Stars! and hope for a sequel, any sequel, the absolute last thing on their mind is graphics. It is all in the game, the strategy, the challenge. I won't rant, but I wrote on this recently in my blog about Petroglyph's new RTS, their failure with EaW, and how an ancient (and now completely ugly) game totally trumped them.

The more I read about Phoenix and browse the source code, the more I like. Making the library act like the standard Delphi canvas is pure genius.