>>My point is that negative biases exist regarding .NET and those who teach it are so strong, that emotion usually drives the direction of the discussion.
Perhaps that has something to do with the fashion in which self-appointed "teachers" choose to convey their opinions.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1