why hasn't there been a decent "modern" version of Elite
I know what you mean, but I think it would simply be spoilt. I bought Elite+ for Dos which was a good "update" of the original (though I don't think I ever did manage to get Archangel status), and then I got Frontier: Elite 2 (I think that's what it was called) way back whenever, and I was hugely, vastly and enormously disappointed!
It was awful!
Perhaps with more modern hardware and software it would be possible to produce a game that was true to the original while also more challenging and involving.
But I doubt it!
SD