It was already very stale before standalone was even released. Standalone has sold a lot of units to both DayZ veterans and new players, but people are quickly figuring out that it's not all magic and unicorns and are going right back to the mod/Epoch. If you don't think so, simply fire up the mod and start talking to people in the side channel. The mod has more active players than standalone, and Epoch has more active players than both of them combined.
Almost everyone I've talked to while playing Epoch that has bought the standalone say they only bought it because it is currently cheap, and have no desire to go back to it until it either hits beta, has Epoch's features, or a version of the Epoch mod. If Dean Hall was smart, he'd put base-building, a currency-based economy, and proper crafting at the top of the list.
Besides, zombies are old-hat now. Rust is practically DayZ Epoch minus the zombies and it's incredibly popular right now.