After building gui apps in c++/mfc, I tried delphi. It was amazingly productive. The closest thing I can compare it to is going from java/tomcat to rails; that feeling of getting so much actual work done is what makes delphi (and rails) stick.
I was overwhelmed by the feeling that designer of MFC doesn't want me to get anything done but instead wants to take me on neverending tour of the peculiarities of underlying libraries that were built for 16bit ancient windows.