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One can argue, in one sense, that chess is a victim of its own success. 
Despite some kludginess in the rules, individuals could stumble across the
rules, and play, and find a game that could keep them busy a lifetime.  It
is when you get a community behind a game that they do wear it out.  This
is the nature of abstract strategy games, is that they set themselves up
to be solved.  The more popular the game, the sooner it wears itself out.

What I will say is happening is the chess community is gravitating towards
Speed Chess as the solution to a lot of its ills.  Reducing the time to
play a game offers the biggest bang for the buck.  So, do expect that to
become more of the norm as time goes on.

Of course, the opening book being stale is another issue, but it seems to
be not that important to the chess community normally.  Chess960 has show
enough there.  However, there does appear to be some backlash.  It will
likely, by default, be the way to address opening book staleness, unless a
better solution is offered.

And, all this being said, I believe the variant community should look into
its strengths and try to come up with some alternative that can speak to
the conversation.

By the way, the issue I see with Superchess is that it s a proprietary product, that doesn't get enough exposure, and I personally find the pieces far too confusng.  Nice idea, but it is set up where it won't spread and get needed exposure.