I am pretty sure that having access to all of the events in VB6, I would be able to implement a bug-free Autocomplete Textbox. [0]
In Power Apps, it is not possible to implement this exact UI, without major bugs - in 2023.
Something was definitely forgotten along the way.
[0] https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_js_autocomplete.asp
.. That’d completely fall apart at the first hint of anything vaguely nontrivial going on with input, whether due to the user’s language, accessibility tech, or autocorrect on a touch keyboard.
I remember being a non-Latin-script user in the age of localization patches and country-specific builds, and very much appreciate today’s “(try not to ruin) i18n first” approach (among other things implied by the above), but a simple input API absolutely was a casualty of that, even if you LoB app is completely fine being ASCII-only (however dubious a statement that is).
(No experience with Power Apps, but I don’t think there is a single modern platform where that’ll be easy.)
We haven’t forgotten anything. MS Power Apps is the spiritual successor for Access.
Also, it’s the likely reason that startups like AirTable went unicorn, and if you look at Salesforce and ServiceNow they look a lot like enterprise versions of MS Access. Everything mentioned is a low code platform. I’m sure if you give me time I can name more major low code companies
What you’ve forgotten in your nostalgia is the instability and insecurity related to VB and everything that relies on it. It’s probably why MS is trying to kill it for Windows 12.