If we are talking about a subsim with large appeal, then WW1 and WW2, as much as they interest me, would probably not be the best choice.
I'd tend to think that either the cold war, with so many 'proxy' involvements from other nations, or more recent times, with many more nations getting into using subs, would have a wider appeal. This is obviously important, as any such major development would have to harbour the hope that a large number of people would buy it.
More than anything, in such a sim, I'd like to see a very realistic environment for the sub, too often there is no sea life, a scant amount of detail on the ocean floor and no attention paid to tides, temperatures etc. I'd be far happier seeing this than some eye candy compartments (although that wouldn't hurt too).
A big problem is the artificial intelligence, and we can see how this would certainly be an issue from the many sub movies there have been. Sub movies, because they are limited to basically one set for much of the time, have to feature strong character exposition and much drama. Over and above the CGI or models of boats in big pools, this is a lot of their appeal. To emulate this in a realistic way would be a challenge-and-a-half!
One way around it would be an MMO, but to make that work in any realistic sense would require people to happily play seaman third class deck scrubber, and who would want to do that? Much less be available when you were to do it. A similar nautical experiment is being tried with Pirates of the Burning Sea, but I have my doubts about the concept.
So I think that something along the lines of Dangerous Waters with a campaign and a 3D interior with some crew interaction, and a scenario editor which would enable you to script the responses for your virtual crew, in order to keep scenario possibilities from becoming stale, would be about the best you could hope for.
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