Please bring transset-df back. - "It's orphaned, dead upstream": It's got no outstanding bugs in Debian's bug tracking system. No updates upstream may imply it's been abandoned just as much as it may mean it does not need any more work. It is perfect as it is.
- "has low popcon": I will leave the answer to this one to Joey Hess in his article: the popcon problem, at http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/the_popcon_problem/, which was also featured in Debian Project News - May 2nd, 2011. - There is currently no alternative transparency manipulation program in Debian that can replace transset-df to manipulate transparency settings when using xcompmgr.