@Crk:
Using the same reasoning, why Java, why C++, why C, why Macros in assembler, why not link the programs yourself, the linker adds 'bloat' too ?

I couldn't resists posting, but honestly you should really research before posting comments like that. You can do the hero programming on your own, but there are people who work in groups, on large scale projects, and need to deliver something that works and fast.

The fact that it runs inside an interpreter has more to do with having a framework that provides good memory management, built-in security, rapid development, portability than anti-reverse engineering. In fact, it has nothing to do with anti-reverse engineering since a lot of structures from the source code have to be left inside the .net code to run correctly.