That seems an extremely negative way of describing a spiritual sequel.
I'd call it an established roguelike developer working on a new game in the style of their past successful work, but with license to take it further (look at the difference in ADOM development progress when TB got some help).

(Oh, and if you're after concrete stuff that makes it 'different' from doomrl, the one and only game mechanic that I've discussed with JH devs is different in JH and doomrl (cover mechanics). )
My point is - it's miles away from 'doomrl with tiles'.