The Tecnam P2010 (designed in 2010, FAR 23 certified in 2015) is the most recent single engine, 4 seat, high wing airplane to be certified by the FAA. The second most recent is the Cessna 177. That was certified in 1968.
Having to throw away that first engine design could have been survivable if the economy didn't get so sucky so fast.
Most of them were shelved, only the HondaJet is still being produced (in small numbers).
As they say: The way to make a small fortune in aviation is to start with a big one.
Cessna doesn't call it this, but the Mustang is pretty close to VLJ sizes. (Not many being made though, as their M2 pretty much took over that space of the market.) The Embraer Phenom 100 is similar. Both have been reasonably successful.