BASICs available at bootup were nice, but really were only useful with 8 bit micros. IBM ROM BASIC was hobbled until you ran BASICA from disk. And if you had a floppy it only made sense to buy a cheap compiler (Quick Basic, Turbo Basic, etc.). Whatever you were missing by not dropping 4-500$ for a full product probably wasn't worth the expense.
ROM BASICs outlived their usefulness very quickly. Compiled Basic was an entrance into real world development. It wasn't a tool you could do everything with. But how many programmers sitting at home were creating apps that were even 64k in size. Compiled Basic was the schnitzel. There are also several 32/64 bit versions available for free. Carry on.
