VB.NET is not the first choice of the runtime, the underlying .NET runtime was built for C#. And when VB and C# conflicted, it was VB that was modified to suit the new runtime. In some cases that improved the language, but it also caused a lot of trivial changes that wouldn't have otherwise been necissary and mucked up a few things.

In truth VB 6 and VB.NET are so unrelated they should be considered two seperate languages with similar syntax.

Jay