There are many very large legacy code bases that sit in many flavours of VB that aren't cost effective to rewrite or migrate. I manage several such products. This provides them a continued way forward with updated features.

MS wouldn't still be investing in it if they weren't seeing uptake on the product, even if it may not be the first choice among some developers.

Why would you want to do that? When I was a student, I had this little old car that never let me down. Then I made money and bought a new car. The old car was still running fine, and another poor student wanted a car, so I gave it to him for free. He said if the car is still running he would give it to another poor student in 3 years. He did.

If I would have taken my car to the junk yard, what good would it have done?

For the same reason anyone would choose C# over F# (also beyond my comprehension) ;)

The difference in power and safety between VB.NET, Java, and C# is minimal. Meanwhile, F# is leagues ahead. These days I see someone using C# who looks down on Java or VB.NET as a sibling laughing at their identical twin.