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Microsoft started writing NT in 1987 when they brought in David Cutler and his gang from Digital. It wasn't till 1996 when NT 4 came out that Microsoft actually started making any real profits on NT. That is NINE solid years!

In general, I agree with your point of leveraging current software. OTOH, how much is it going to cost MS to port Windows to an IBM platform?

On your Windows history. First, Cutler didn't start until 1988. Second, a huge reason for the cost and delay is the success of Windows 3 in 1990. Cutler had been designing NT to the OS/2 APIs for a couple of years, but then Gates told them to change everything to be compatible with the Win 16 APIs and DOS. This was a great marketing decision, but it resulted in an inferior OS that was delayed for years. This fundamental design decision haunts Windows to this day.

"Second, a huge reason for the cost and delay is the success of Windows 3 in 1990. Cutler had been designing NT to the OS/2 APIs for a couple of years, but then Gates told them to change everything to be compatible with the Win 16 APIs and DOS"

You are correct on the above of course.
But.... I have to agree with that decision.
It was absolutely essential, for marketing reasons, that NT be compatible with Win 16 APIs and Dos. And the overall point I was making still remains valid. That its sometimes necessary to take loses for some time on a product with a potentially very big market.
Today ,without NT ,Microsoft will really be in very deep trouble. Practically everything is based on NT. XP, Win Server 2003, SQL Server and Exchange Server run on NT etc etc.