I think Darkcoin is down because Darksend+ works if you wanted to manipulate to acquire more this was your last chance while there is still some level of uncertainty  Kristovs review will come out, Evan has important announcements and soon all doubt surrounding RC4 will dissapear. Also people that complete their 1000 DRK at these prices will set up nodes. Next week shall be interesting. I hold a large amount and I dont sell to buy cheaper Ill rather support the coin volunteering and buy when I can, so far this strategy works great for me.

I think at least two of the devs went on vacation or something. One is in China up until the beginning of July.

As for why anyone would want the price low, the only reason is to buy in cheap to sell higher later. That said, I don't really think any devs want the price to be low. Someone is picking up cheap-ish XBC however in the mid 20s at a decent rate, I have noticed, with multi btc offers there now. So if playing the conspiracy game, someone dumps to themselves, price sinks, put in low buy orders, scoop up coins... coin hits MP (or pumps on hype pre-MP), price goes up, sell for profit.