>>But I see no reason not to begin my next app using what I have come to believe is a superior ( or at least more interesting ) technology when pretty much the only argument against doing so would be "Gee it's a lot of hassle to learn new stuff" <s>

That might be one argument and I agree that if they mean it seriously, they're missing half the fun of this business and should be bank tellers.
But for me, having wasted weeks on the rapid Linq-to-Sql ascent/descent in my short .NET tenure, I want to see MS invest some serious time and effort in new things before I do.
For me that means a couple of versions with serious enhancements, at least.
That's not an argument.. it's a survival strategy .. I can only waste so much time on dead ends.
If it means passing up the latest and greatest for a while, so be it.

Regarding the VB/C# choice..when I was learning .NET I started with VB till someone here said that the rates were higher for C# programmers.
VB disappeared in a hurry.
Some decisions are pretty simple, it seems to me.

re: those people who learn on the bosses' dimes.. would you really want a job like that?