Then you're literally gonna love DE. It's filled with side-quests; ones related to the storyline and ones who don't have anything to do with it.
I'll very likely quit rom hacking once I'm done with this project. Reason? I'm already 21 and can imagine living like any other normal adult in near future. Putting up a family and that kind of stuff.
If I do continue after DE is finished, I could continue with Emerald if I didn't have to make maps on my own at all - I "hate" mapping with 3rd gen mapping engine, it takes just way too much time to make a good looking map, especially if you're not familiar with the border blocks to use in different occasions like I'm not.
There are also other options though, I might go with a hack of a Final Fantasy game instead. But I do think I'm going to quit, I'd be hanging around in the forums giving others advice but starting another major overhaul of a game, not a good idea.
Also, such a hack that would remake Dark Energy in the future cannot be done, or it would have to have a completely different storyline (there is no "champion" battle in the game, or "secret trainer" like Red in Mt. Silver). Besides from that, some of the important (storyline-related) asm scripts are difficult to make based on GBA's engine so that's another reason why I wouldn't want to remake it based on Emerald.
The hack itself doesn't need a remake; it will stand out from the rest on its own ;)