> (Turbo) Pascal eventually gave way to Delphi which, despite its technical merits, never had the same impact.

Not sure I can agree with this. My time with TP7 was fledgling, Delphi was my first "professional" language. Over the years since, I still get cold-called and -emailed from recruiters who would do anything but pay for a Delphi developer.

An interesting parallel with NT: Dave Cutler was hired by MS to replicate his success with VMS and built NT.

Likewise, Anders Hejlsberg was hired by MS to replicate his success with Delphi and built C#.

I think that's pretty impactful.