Are you saying that the guys over at GameDev.net make spectacular things way above and beyond everything else, using c++? Regardless of language, you will probably need millions of dollars to make something beyond the visual quality of various AAA games. At least... visual quality to appeal to peoples' warped minds that are obsessed with flat attempts at realism.
I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that all the people that I identify as making the best games use C++ as a basis for those games. In my eyes C++ is more dynamic than BASIC and can put you above and beyond BASIC if you can utilize it correctly. The gamedev.net people probably just haven't mastered it yet.
I personally, was more interested in making games than programming just a few years ago (ok still am). However, I've realized after making a few fairly successful games that I'll never achieve my desired effect on the industry or players without better programming skills. I can do just about anything I want with Blitz but because I think Blitz is limiting in other areas of the whole game vehicle I have no motivation to use it.
Torque is making a better programmer out of me because I have to learn new stuff (like way more C++ than I ever used before). Also, Torque goes places ... anywhere you want if you've got the skills. So overall I'm just tired of what BASIC offers me. I've got a bazillion little games I've made with Blitz but none of them is worth finishing in Blitz because the overall game would suffer by restricting it to BASIC where I have absolutely no control over the internals of the platform.