Dragan,
I agree with you. IMHO one of the big issues is that many "gurus" out there have not experienced a development environment where data and the sublanguages you mentioned earlier are tied together. To them, language and data are completely separate entities. So when they compare to VFP, they compare SQL Server to dbfs (allowing a "VFP isn't as good" conclusion- as if VFP can't use SQL Server) and dotNET to VFP (allowing a "dotNET does everything VFP can do" conclusion- as long as you use ADO and SPS that's true) and miss the "1+1=3" synergies that come from coupling.
It is great to see people like KL and YAG inside the MS camp educating them about these synergies. One of my disappointments was that many "gurus" who made a noise about moving from VFP to dotNET seemed to forget about the coupling synergies or ignore them, mimicking the prevailing "disparate language and data" thinking. If MS does as it says and introduces features like proper 2-way coupling and autospanning datasets, dotNET will go from strength to strength.
Regards
j.Rr
"... 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