I don't understand what they mean by "no VB runtime". My impression was that the VB installer always included all the DLLs necessary to run on a generic Win32 system. If they change something to break VB programs, they'll also be breaking lots of other Win32 software, too.

Those are what FORTRAN people are hired for. To maintain their archaic systems which store vital information.

Sounds like a business opportunity to me.