Since I'm a "performance guy" I use vim ... which has been 64-bit compatible since last century.

Sure, Visual Studio is a much much bigger challenge to make compatible. But come on, they've had over a decade during which it was obvious it should be 64bit compatible! A decade!

During the same decade-long timeframe they should have been working on lifting the 260 char path limit, another bug they "wontfix".

My guess is that they've had really strong product management - they really prioritize those snazzy features and releases, but aren't allowed to spend any time on the technical debt. (And, seriously, they've had a decade ...)