>>If that's the case, why are the number of developers specializing in .Net / Java so much greater then VFP even in it's heydey?
We are (trying to) examine RS's proposition regarding extra lines of code to deliver better functionality. How does your question relate to this?
"... 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