I think decentralized DNS is as important a topic now as it has ever been.
I agree its a serious project but I think its just not a right time for its demand. There are many examples good projects died after it failed to make its presence in market. People are most attractive to lucrative infrastructure projects with high TPS these days. Most people agree that first we need to establish a good infrastructure to build dApps and other projects on it. I think many projects will come up with its own in-built security system too. So, it is not clear at the moment in the future how much demand NMC will have. Even the demand arise, it will have to face tough competition with similar projects such as Blockstack. The most important thing is that there is very low marketing for the project and it has been in dark for a long time and many people have forgotten its presence. So, I think the first step is let world know its existence with marketing such as bounty program or competition of its kind, its not surprising that so many projects spending so much money on bounties. And also re-launch the attractive website. Website does not affect the quality of project but it does effect mindset of investors. People nowadays had a habit of lucrative sleek website in crypto, so many would not learn further after they see html type simple website. Every dog has its day, but for that day we need to stay fit to hit on, otherwise we will miss the chance.
Compare Namecoin with Litecoin. Litecoin has four times the supply of Namecoin and was introduced after Namecoin. However, one LTC is roughly 50 times more valuable, than one NMC. In the moment, Namecoin is cheap as dirt!
It is a different demand level of Litecoin than Namecoin. Litecoin is more valuable these days because since bitcoin is mostly seen as "store of value" rather than currency because of slow transaction and high fees, Litecoin came as good substitute for bitcoin to work as currency because of fast transactions and very nominal fees. And also Litecoin has huge community behind it which is making a feel of presence in market and thus increasing its value and its founder, Charlie Lee, is always on limelight and quite well-known figure in cryptoworld which Namecoin lacks.
I hope devs of namecoin will realize the importance of marketing and make its presence in the market, make new website, and re-launch the project may be with new name. It can re-vitalize the project.