Jof - you're reading too much into my comment. The job isn't a coding role, and perhaps I'm being too general.
It does however demand a "master of all trades" skillset. All the technology is first-of-type, from scores of different suppliers who code in everything you can imagine. Narrow skill sets just don't cut it. Most of the guys are over 40 and have a detailed insight of how computers work, necessary to take the holistic view the role requires; people who were on the scene well before MS showed up and dumbed everything down.
If you turned to the guys in my team who are red hot .net coders and said, "why do you use .net?", most of them answer, "It's quick and dirty for general purposes and pays the mortgage. For specialist jobs, use specialist tools".
.Net has it's place, just not where I work. "Raiders of the lost ark"-style hangars stuffed full of Sparc boxes is closer to the mark.