The implication is that VB.NET developers will be in the same boat as VB6 developers. As already noted, the transition to C# is actually quite trivial step from VB. If the .NET platform goes away, there are a whole host of other technologies - web development which has a fairly strong market share is not reliant on .NET in any way shape or form. I believe most .NET developers have more than a passing familiarity with web-based technologies (e.g. JavaScript and associated libraries).

VB6 does not give 'hobby developers' any bang for their buck, and has not for well over a decade. It was easy to learn, but at a dollar cost. VB6 allowed someone with no programming skills to create applications; the similarities between VB6 and VBScript demonstrate this, and why VBA has not gone away, as atrocious a programming language that it is (it served a purpose).

the .NET (Express) opened up 'real' programming practices to the non-programmers. Those without programming training, education or skills would find .NET very daunting and overly complex. Much like any other skill, just because you have the tools, doesn't make one a craftsman in that field. This is where VB6 was lauded as an amateur language; it didn't have the rite of passage that the real programming languages demanded.