Sure there might be other problems, but not that one.
What is the concrete problem DRK is having (in addition to constant trolling) now or in the future that is a direct result of the unfortunate launch?
Perpetual criticism that it is the fruit of a poison tree. Meaning either incompetence or fraud, and both are indeed poison to outsiders who dislike both and are structurally unable to distinguish them.
That does not mean zero success, but it will be an unnecessary burden to bear, and that's a tough obstacle in a brutally competitive market.
So the concrete and actual problem is FUD. Agreed pretty much.
FUD is a problem yes, but in this case it is the symptom and not the cause. The cause can only be addressed by moving to a different coin that wasn't instamined. It will forever be the case that people researching dark will hit google and find
this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=560138.0or this:
http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=a_massive_investigation_of_instamines_and_fastmines_for_the_top_alt_coins#darkcoinYou can't put humpty dumpty back together, sorry.
FUD is a symptom of instamine, which won't cause any concrete problems, except FUD. People in the future will find out many coins were mined fast early on, for them it won't make any difference whether they were mined in 2 seconds or in 2 years.
It does make a difference.
There is such a thing as integrity and reputation, and to normal people outside of the sociopaths who are all too common around cryptocurrencies, those do matter, plus as I mentioned before the practical fact that outsiders can't tell the difference between incompetence and fraud, and rationally dislike both. Perhaps the practical consideration might not matter if the original development team were no longer involved at all, but even then the reputation and integrity of the brand would be permanently damaged compared to similar but undamaged ones, which is going to be very hard to overcome in a competitive market.
DRK is indelibly tarnished, and there is no good reason to pick such a coin among a universe of many, unless you are one of the insiders who are benefitting from this. That's not FUD, it is fact.