> First is the 31 MB limit.
Actually its a 63MB limit. People think they are smart and set the amount to the maximum, and then come here because their game doesnt work well as it sees too much memory. I myself wouldn't have a problem with more RAM.

>Disk image support
The existing patch is flawed iirc.

> reluctance on the part of the maintainers
Lack of manpower and the reluctance to provide support for companies making big $$$ without any expense.

Currently, DOSBox is just about the best (only) thing out there for people who want to run vintage DOS games and demos on modern computers. Still, there do seem to be a few odd design decisions that I'd like better understand. First is the 31 MB limit. Where does it come from? Why was it chosen? Was it mainly just a way to discourage people from running Windows on DOSBox or is there some arcane technical reason for the limit? Certainly it can't be because of lack of applicability to games given that many late DOS games, especially FPS titles with large fan-made levels can benefit from larger amounts of memory than DOSBox can provide... ?

it's not 31MB it's 63MB

63 is the limit this is because HIMEM.SYS before MS-DOS 7 had a limitation of 64MB and since DOSBox only aims to emulate the functionality of MS-DOS 5 then that's why. Since no game could use more than 64 then obviously no game took advantage of more than 64 so therefore there is no need for more.

List the DOS games that REQUIRE\BENEFIT more than 64MB of memory.

Disk image support is another mess of quirks: CD-ROM images can be changed (useful for playing multi-CD games) while floppy images can't (useful for installing games that come as image files). How did THAT end up happening?

There was far greater demand for CD-ROM switch than for floppy switching. IIRC there is a patch for this on sourceforge. Remember DOSBox isn't a finished product.

Finally, there seems to be a certain reluctance on the part of the maintainers to incorporate patches which add features not directly related to running mainstream games. How was this policy arrived at and why does it continue even now that DOSBox is nearing complete compatability with its original goals?

What patches are you referring to?
How have you determined that DOSBox is "nearing complete compatibility"? If such a thing is even possible. Considering DOSBox is not a hardware emulator it will never be "complete".

If you are referring to this: http://www.dosbox.com/status.php?show_status=1 I wouldn't. They may as well set it to 99% or remove it considering it doesn't mean much.