What I would really like to have at the end is an application that can run on either Oracle\SQL Server with a front end that acts more like a skin which can be changed quite quickly and without having to re-write all the business rules.
One solution for this would be to call stored procedures using efficiently scoped pass through cursors. They're faster. Your VFP "client" would remain essentially the same for most "backends". Avoid remote views - they refresh for minutes when it gets busy.

One of the reasons I am asking this is because I have seen an application written in VB.Net which uses a web services for pretty much exactly that reason.
VFP apps consume web services (and deliver them in the case of foxISAPI) with XML DOM and XML messaging. It does not matter what answers the phone (ASP/ ActiveVFP, WC, ASP.NET, foxISAPI,JSP) because the messaging and xml work with under all and can be driven from inside VFP as easily as from JavaScript.

Use activex as much as you can. I met with some people last week that had an in-house VFP application and it had treeviews and right click popups.