What y'all didn't realize is that there is no day/night cycle because the DOS engine doesn't have it and it might be too much work to implement it.
a proper day/night cycle that changes gradually? I accept that. What they could do is have a night map and a day map and switch between them based on the number of long rests, or time since a long rest, etc. there are ways of faking a day/night cycle that would still have the desired effect of making people feel like the world is more alive.