The ability to import an assembly and reuse code gives CLR a huge advantage.  Think about it...  one unified language in development, application automation such as Excel and Office, extensions in products like Exchange and finally integrated into systems such as SQL Server.  How long do you think it is before any technical person can go without knowing CLR?  In ten years, knowing C# or VB.net will be common even for many savy end users.  By contrast I still know developers who use SQL Server who couldn't do a FETCH in SQL without googling it?  MS is clearly pushing CLR to replace the logical aspects of TSQL.