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Is there an in-story reason why some characters who have been faithfully serving the Dark Gods for thousands of years (such as Abaddon and Kharn) have not yet been bestowed daemonhood? Or is it just a "maintain the status quo" thing on GW's part?

Daemonhood is not the goal of every chaos follower. There are significant drawbacks to ascension. You become a part of your patron god. You are focused on the Great Game rather than the events of the Materium. You share the weaknesses that all beings of the warp share.

For Abaddon, his focus has always been on the Long War. To ascend would not only deny him being a part of that, it would also require him to give in to one of the Four. So instead he takes all of the gifts of the Four, resisting the calls to submit. And when those refusals lead to the Four raising up someone to challenge Abaddon, like Thagus Daravek, Abaddon takes them down.

For Kharn, Khorne has a vested interest in keeping a powerful champion working in the materium. Lucius and Typhus serve similar roles for their respective gods. Ahriman's a little more complicated, but in the end he still does Tzeentch's bidding.

Becoming a Daemon means you need a connection with the Warp.

Angron needed Shrines before his invasion on Armageddon.
Mortsrion needed to perform some complex ritual before confronting Guilliman.

The Mortal followers like Kharn and Typhus can just land on a planet and do what they do best.

-Guardsman- wrote:
Is there an in-story reason why some characters who have been faithfully serving the Dark Gods for thousands of years (such as Abaddon and Kharn) have not yet been bestowed daemonhood? Or is it just a "maintain the status quo" thing on GW's part?

Well, Abaddon specifically doesn't want it. To some extent he seems to realize its a trap.

GW's description of the 'ascension' to daemonhood is actually fairly consistent over the years. In many cases the daemon is described as something like a seed that hatches out of the person, and not the actual person gaining power.
The person often ends up as a little voice trapped inside the daemon, screaming.

Freedom vs slavery?

Just to contribute a bit to what other people have already said, Abaddon sees the forces of chaos more as a tool. His relationship with them is very transactional, not reverential. Which is why he ultimately always gets pulled back from the brink of victory, because the Gods know that once he gets what he wants he'll spurn them again. They have a very dysfunctional co-dependent relationship, where he fosters a lot of belief and support for the chaos gods and they help him get progress on his revenge. But they've got to keep this dance going forever.

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
Becoming a Daemon means you need a connection with the Warp.

Angron needed Shrines before his invasion on Armageddon.
Mortsrion needed to perform some complex ritual before confronting Guilliman.

The Mortal followers like Kharn and Typhus can just land on a planet and do what they do best.

This. Mortal Followers are the most potent of Chaos’ forces, not only because they’re mortal, but due to the worship and souls they send their Patron’s way.

Abaddon however is a different matter. Only once have the Dark Goda collectively raised a mortal to Daemonhood. And that was Be’Lakor. Who promptly rebelled, because they couldn’t control him one iota. Where action A may disadvantage Khorne, it may directly benefit Nurgle or Tzeentch. When all four share ‘control’, none of them hold it.

There’s also the distinct feeling that Abaddon has no interest whatsoever in ascending. He’s in it to see The Imperium burn.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
Becoming a Daemon means you need a connection with the Warp.

Angron needed Shrines before his invasion on Armageddon.
Mortsrion needed to perform some complex ritual before confronting Guilliman.

The Mortal followers like Kharn and Typhus can just land on a planet and do what they do best.

This. Mortal Followers are the most potent of Chaos’ forces, not only because they’re mortal, but due to the worship and souls they send their Patron’s way.

Abaddon however is a different matter. Only once have the Dark Goda collectively raised a mortal to Daemonhood. And that was Be’Lakor. Who promptly rebelled, because they couldn’t control him one iota. Where action A may disadvantage Khorne, it may directly benefit Nurgle or Tzeentch. When all four share ‘control’, none of them hold it.

There’s also the distinct feeling that Abaddon has no interest whatsoever in ascending. He’s in it to see The Imperium burn.

Plus, Beyond suffering from a limited existence beyond the warp and losing his own path in his war, didn't Abbadon see Horus's reliance on Chaos as being his biggest downfall and the reason for horus's failure?

I didn't know the idea of a daemon prince being simply a daemon infesting someone else and taking them over completely. I know that someone who ascends loses a good bit of who they once were, but always thought that they were simply transformed.

They are AFAIK. The only time someone gets trapped in their body is possession which is a whole different ball game. It might be a deal where a persons conscience is still around and suffering or something but every Demon Prince I've read about was very happy with what they were.

I think it's a bit of both - their personhood is already heavily diluted just by being Astartes, then the trials and tribulations of the long war and warp influence steadily corroding their souls. By the time they ascend to Daemonhood they have already been through so many changes that eventually their wants and needs are completely subsumed by their patron deity. The small part of themselves that is their conscience or similar is now trapped deep deep down inside of them.

In Dark Imperium, Mortarion knows that he is pretty much now devoted entirely to the aims of Nurgle. He chafes at this when Typhon reminds him of it (in a pretty clunky and awkward scene, in my opinion), but he can't really say anything to refute it.

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
I think it's a bit of both - their personhood is already heavily diluted just by being Astartes, then the trials and tribulations of the long war and warp influence steadily corroding their souls. By the time they ascend to Daemonhood they have already been through so many changes that eventually their wants and needs are completely subsumed by their patron deity. The small part of themselves that is their conscience or similar is now trapped deep deep down inside of them.

In Dark Imperium, Mortarion knows that he is pretty much now devoted entirely to the aims of Nurgle. He chafes at this when Typhon reminds him of it (in a pretty clunky and awkward scene, in my opinion), but he can't really say anything to refute it.

That is true, most CSM are already extremely far removed from their humanity before they become daemons. Still, they do seem to retain noticeable parts of their old selves, like Mortarion trying to recreate Barbarus on the Plague Planet and keeping the soul of his 'father' in a jar out of revenge. Typhus in fact mocks Mortarion for this kind of sentimentalism. Magnus also seems to retain much of his old self in how he relates to members of his legion. Now Angron, he appears to be completely lost in his blood lust, but that's probably due to which god he serves. From what I understand, daemon princes and other daemons are free to engage in their own machinations, much like Chaos lords, until their patrons directly want them for a campaign or something else; it's at that point that they must absolutely obey.

Also, you mentioned about CSM having been separated from their humanity due to their biology and initial indoctrination. But what about the daemon princes that weren't ever SM, who were just average people, like Doombreed? I wonder if they would maintain more of their orginal selves after becoming daemons.

Angron never really liked many of his legion anyway, so its pretty moot now.

I'm surprised morty doesnt kill typhon outright. typhus was a scheming turd who backstabbed the guy who saved him and manipulated him to the whims of nurgle.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Angron never really liked many of his legion anyway, so its pretty moot now.

I'm surprised morty doesnt kill typhon outright. typhus was a scheming turd who backstabbed the guy who saved him and manipulated him to the whims of nurgle.

It might be a case of he can't. Typhon is pretty dedicated to Nurgle and he's a very useful follower so I doubt Nurgle would let someone he controls kill him for being an ass.