You bring up a good point, which is that I remember most the GUI builder. Basic isn't really that great a language, all things considered. But being able to quickly design and deploy GUI apps with VB was better than anything I've encountered since.
There are things like WebFlow and FlutterFlow but those tools feel clunky by comparison.
Netbeans java gui builder is the only builder I’ve seen come close to the vb gui builder. In fact I was a little disappointed moving from net beans to a “real Java ide” since their gui builders don’t exist or aren’t as good. But vb as a language is a lot better than Java for getting to a productive state for a novice.
There are things like WebFlow and FlutterFlow but those tools feel clunky by comparison.