Well, I believe Theymos took a good decision by halting that Epochtalk project as investing more money into a project like that is somehow waste of money.
There are many reasons why I think switching to a new Forum wouldn't really be a good move. Yes most people or rather some people would prefer a new forum software probably because of the way regular websites we browse most of the time appear compared to an SMF forum like Bitcointalk. However there are some important things to be considered.
Basically one of them is security. There is a high chance there would be a lot of bugs on the new forum because it would be relatively easier to exploit a new forum like that off it's bugs compared to this forum that has lasted years with those bugs fixed from time to time. Trust me Theymos won't place a bounty on the new forum for exploiting bugs that need fixing because they will be cracked in no time.