With the interest fading so much, I think Microsoft probably just wants to nix the project as something official. While it's not expensive for them to maintain,

With the interest fading so much, I think Microsoft probably just wants to nix the project as something official. While it's not expensive for them to maintain, I imagine they don't want to be tied to a dying product like that. They probably want to actively discourage development of VB because VB does not fit into their vision of the .NET ecosystem anymore. I think that's the point the author is missing here.