>I justify it on the basis that this is where MS efforts on RD are focused.

R&D in what? .NET?

There are two unstated premisi here that need addressing.

First you are implying that R&D by a high-tech company leads to immediate business solutions in a struggling private sector. Remember when MS said "Hey, every app you'll need to write, you can write it inside of Office". Your same "I read the marketing literature so I know" argument could have been applied there as well. However, then and now even more so, the thought of tossing investments of other stable, mature platforms and moving to untested waters is not easily swallowed, especially when existing platform (Java, VS6/VFP7, ect.) can do everything that .NET can.

Second, you are assuming that the only way a FoxPro developer can benefit from that R&D is by switching to .NET now. There is no proof to that.