Great write up. I think Microsoft’s mistreatment of Access is also due to the headaches of dealing with its misuse and overuse. It was a tool that was easy for novice developers to use, and novice developers could easily fall into some nasty traps and blame Microsoft for the bad experience. It also doesn’t play well with the rest of their modern developer ecosystem (things like .NET). At the end of the day, Access is an island, and gradually becoming a deserted one.