In my opinion, high level play should be more than just cranking up the numbers on monsters, traps and loot. Of course, dialling these up to eleven IS essential, but it's not everything. Upon reaching two-digit levels, characters should already be wielding some influence in the game world. Some hero classes already point in this direction (becoming part of a holy order, for example). D&D, in the olden days at least, gave characters influence automatically - fighters got castles and retainers, wizards a tower and apprentices, etc.
Why not integrate this stuff into DS? Sure, the game would change, substantially maybe, but I don't think that's a bad thing.
On the other hand, that is all theoretical rambling on how I would do it if my campaign reached that stage...