HackLite is not exactly a "modified NetHack"...it's rather more
complicated than that. HackLite evolved out of MSDOS Hack 3.61, an
Amiga Hack port done by John Toebes, and NetHack 2.2. If you must
think of it as a NetHack variant, it's a variant of 2.2, not of any
later version. (If it was derived from a later version, then since
NetHack 3.0+ was copyleft'ed, I couldn't get away with withholding
source. :-) HackLite has (in my opinion) a very different feel from any
version of NetHack, and also has a lot fewer bugs (especially fewer
than 2.2/2.3, which was extraordinarily buggy). "NetHack made simple"
from the FAQ was only an attempt at explaining what was different about
HackLite in a few words, not a precise description. (It is interesting
to note that, in the world of Hack descendants, HackLite is the only
one I know of that believes a limit on game complexity is a good
thing.)

Perhaps it will help if I enclose the history you get with the V command in
HackLite:

The original HACK was written by Jay Fenlason with help from Kenny
Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne. Andries Brouwer did a major
re-write and published (at least) two versions (1.0.2 and 1.0.3) to the
Usenet. PC HACK 3.61 was an MSDOS(tm) version of HACK 1.0.3. The PC
implementation was done in Microsoft(tm) C by Don Kneller and modified
by Ken Arromdee. Amiga HACK 1.0.3D was an Amiga version of UNIX HACK
1.0.3. The Amiga port was performed by John A. Toebes, VIII, with the
assistance of other members of the Software Distillery. Hack Lite
v1.0.0 was a merged version of PC HACK and Amiga Hack, created by Alan
Beale and John Toebes, incorporating many performance and playability
improvements.

Meanwhile, in another part of the dungeon, Mike Stephenson and Ken
Arromdee created NetHack from PC HACK and UNIX HACK, incorporating many
modifications and features made by the above, as well as the following
honored hackers:

  Scott R. Turner  Tom Almy           John S. Bien
  Gil Neiger       Ralf Brown         Eric S. Raymond
  Eric Backus      Roland McGrath     Greg Laskin
  Bruce Holloway   Richard P. Hughey  Kevin Sweet
  Steve Creps      Olaf Seibert

Hack Lite v2.0.0 (and beyond) for the Amiga and the IBM PC was
developed by Alan Beale from Hack Lite v1.0.0 and NetHack 2.2,
and will surely remain the last word in hackery until v3.0.0.