As much as I disagree with CORBA, as highlighted by my publication history, it's clear in many cases it was very successful in industry in limited applications.
http://www.omg.org/news/meetings/workshops/SBC_2005/SBC_2005...
As I suspected, the slides I dug up indicated they built it with some rigor but not high assurance itself. Probably too complex: the very reason I object to CORBA. Like you said, though, CORBA did have successes with this one in very-demanding niche in terms of predictability and security.