If there are free IDEs, why would you pay for Microsoft's?
I can *just* understand why you would pay for it for C++, to get the wizards that create MFC and ATL projects and such like. You might also want the optimizing compiler. But would you really pay over a grand for those things? It's not as if there aren't free optimizing compilers.
What I've found is that, using free stuff only you can:
* debug, with /debug and Windbg and ClrDBG (with .pdb files)
* compile C++ code with optimization (albeit with non-microsoft tools)
* and now apparently it seems, design windows forms for C# (and VB)!
surely people don't spend a grand just to have
* Microsoft's optimizing compiler as opposed to another optimizer
* the convenience of all the wizards MS provides