>You could make the same argument about writing an ntier application with ADO or XML. The code is almost the same, why choose VFP?

The code is not almost the same. XML and ADO each have very distinct and different features:

XML supports hierarchical data
ADO supports accessing records with an easy object model, and automatic updates.

The code for using each is nowhere near the same, and they serve two completely different (although occasionally overlapping) purposes.