15 years ago Visual Basic was a massive platform, so teasing at a common ground made sense for a lot of programmers to come by.
Maybe today Javascript might have the same teasing effect.
Don't get me wrong... I do understant what you mean... I just disagree with it...
I think one of the main issues nowadays is exactly the sheer quantity of different programming languages out there (JS, Java, Pearl, Ruby, C, C+, etc)
And this can easily be a good strong point, because BASIC is as easy as logical thinking... We can almost program by transcriving a sentence in plain english!
I'm not saying that B4X should be ported to Javascript, but maybe if Erel has to start it from scratch now, he might choose a different language.
That, only EREL can answer, but I am guessing that, in order to create B4X (remember that, in the beginning, B4PPC was just a transpiler) and target IOS, ANDROID and JAVA, he had to learn and know them extremely well, so if he stuck with BASIC Like syntax, was not only because of the easy to reach VB community, but because he wanted to have the most versatile, low learning curve possible product.