Generally speaking I agree with you in terms of the mdi game.

If SK is a 3 act game,, act 2 needs some more punch.

The Dungeon Master is supposed to be the primary element there but it's very content sensitive (i.e. there's little content).  

That said, I would like some...thing to split my attention. I just don't know what that thing is yet.

In FTL terms, it would be the equivalent of a shop or something on the map that encourages me to spend a lot of stuff to get other stuff I might need.

Yea, a lot of that is also going to come down to making sure people can upgrade their stuff by using their equipment as ingredients.

Will she be in a snapshot soon?

I tried playing as the Wizard and actually enjoyed it still, but he is very vanilla. Vanilla is good, but there needs to be something more for more advanced players there, or it will always be the go-to beginner's sovereign.

What the boring mid game looks like in my games:

I grab four (or more) shards and the build mountains/uber outposts to block off SKs minions.  At this point I can generate enough mana to keep the doomsday counter by reducing it as fast (or faster) than SK bumps it up.  At this point I level up my stack of doom where ever it is convenient.  Sometimes my setup is tight enough to go exploring.  Other times I level up by mopping up SK minions that wander too close to an outpost if my setup is a little leaky.

At this point it would be nice if SK (or DM) did something besides "Here, level up on minions, and when you are ready go kill yerself an SK"

One way to handle this would be to nerf "reduce doomsday".  Several ideas:

1) Each cask gives SK a temporary buff (outposts do 1/4 damage for 5 turns, random outpost destroyed, Some mana goes into SK's mana pool, player heroes frozen for 3 turns)

2) Make it a scroll and add reagents to the current pile of mana required.  Could make ability to cast the spell "questy" by doing this.  Could even have spell triggered by having Doomsday counter get 3/5 full, ensuring SK gets some serious doom going even if player is sitting on a pile of mana.

3) Diminishing turns or increased cost with each cast.

Other possibilities:

Weaken outposts/other defensive buildings.  Add a one per faction strong defensive building so your hero doesn't have to babysit your capital. I've had game fall into "defend you big city with your hero and don't quest cuz you'll get killed" and this is boring.  Or have weaker defensive buildings, but have them gain a temporary buff when you complete quests/clear bandit lairs/ destroy SK settlements.  Make it optimal for the SOD to go around clobbering stuff (with a purpose, not just to gain levels, the classic bane of any game with RPG elements), not sitting home picking off SK minions.