[balls187]

I'm assuming this recruiter doesn't recruit for a company, but instead works for a recruiting company. It's been my experience that they tend to be myopic with their skillset and end up setting up a cycle--experience finding candidates with X skillset, so work with companies that need X skillset, which means they need to source candidates with X skillset.

Is MSFT stack the darling of Silicon Valley? No.

Is it used widely? Yes.

MSFT and Google had no interest in losing cloud market, so you will be fine in either ecosystem.

At 40, with no interest in management, my suggestion would be moving towards principal architect / principal software engineer roles, where you are considered the defacto company expert in X. Sounds like you have a lot of MSFT technology experience, and I have to imagine you will find work until you no longer wish to work.

Also, I would consider marketing your skillset; MSFT makes good products, and teams/companies may not be aware. I wouldn't say "Why are you using Javascript and not .NET" as that is not a wise question, but rather, show how investing in MSFT toolchains would benefit their org.