The Tavern

This is something that I haven't seen written yet, and I wonder if it's why the ID / curse system still exists.

Curses limit the amount of swapping you can do with the *curse artifacts. Not a big deal.

More importantly, curses are needed to give a reason to the ID system to exist. If there were no curses, you could just use-ID everything except artifacts, distortion, and Harm.

This way, curses turn into a clock, because you theoretically cannot ID every item in the game, because scroll ID is limited by ID scrolls, and use-ID is limited by curse scrolls.

In practice, I don't think it really changes anything, because I don't remember a game in which I couldn't ID an interesting item for lack of remove curse scrolls. The only exception are Gnolls, I guess.

Curses have something of a role for Ash, but Ash could be simpler, like causing distortion/Zot trap effects when you change your equipment. Or costing rations. Or drain.

I don't care much about curses on non-artifacts. Ring of teleportation is fun, distortion weapon is strong and I don't use slings and other launchers anyway (unless I am already a primary launcher user and am trying to upgrade the weapon but then negative enchantment is not a big deal). Harm is instantly unequipped unless I am already very weak. The worst thing for me is *Contamination, I wouldn't like to get Berserkitis as it makes the game unfun for me (too much luring)

There are infinite scrolls of remove curse and identify in the game.

...assuming you spend infinite turns in Pan or Abyss.

Then there are infinite randarts in the game too I remember having problems with item identification in ziggurats.

Inaccuracy and loudness can be no picnic, too.

It's just one more jigsaw element to me, like trying (hoping?) to get gear and spells with most of the stronger powers or most of the right resistances all at the right time. You can have far more remove curse scrolls than you need by mid game IF you are lucky (and often a little cautious -- not picking up stuff you probably won't use much anyway, even a few things that you just might find awesome enchantments on for short-term gain)... But also, some games produce fewer removes (or fewer early ones, the more noticed kind?) than most. It also depends whether you encounter something particular nasty -- or just like to roll this way -- and chug through a bunch of potion types quickly, which you otherwise might have spent ID scrolls on all the way through Lair.

But maybe I'm just a slow learner.