IMO, a flavoured-CoC theme created from scratch would have far more potential than a unofficial CoC2 port . I genuinely think a mod won't solve all the issues plaguing COC successor.
I worked for a bit on a CoC2 port using the MZ engine coupled to JS scripts. Initially, my motivation was nothing more than to do justice to the the wayfort, where players could turn a ruin into a place they could call their own, and over time, conquer the surrounding region.
On the technical side, the proof-of-concept was up to my expectations (Font-size, HD resolution, parser system, TF items), but when I realized I was constrained by Savin's storytelling , I lost all the interest I had for the project.