JBirdieH,
This is a question that's been asked many times over the past ten years or so.
The way I see it, Paradox still has a future as long as people keep using it. After all, there are a lot of machines still using Windows 95 as their OS.
If we want to see anything change, then I suggest write nicely written letters to Corel, Vector Capital, and so on.
Even if those parties don't want to pursue active development, perhaps we can get them to open-source both Paradox and BDE. That way, if the community wants changes, the community can make them.
Hope this helps...
-- Lance