Odd, I like C++/CLI but you listed exactly its features I dislike.  My criticisms:

 - > [C++-style references for managed types](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2181846/how-can-i-get-close-to-non-nullable-types-in-c-today), not as elegant as full blown [non-nullable](http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=non-nullable) references but better than nothing or using a [work-around](http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon_skeet/archive/2008/10/06/non-nullable-reference-types.aspx).

   Okay.  But accidental use of the hat is pretty widespread, getting
   the value of the value type boxed without warning.  There is no way
   to diagnose this mistake.
 - > templates which are more powerful than generics

   Power that comes at a high price, templates you write are not usable
   in any other .NET language.  If anything, it worsens the C++ template
   export problem.  The complete failure of STL/CLR is worth pondering
   too.
 - > preprocessor (this may be a disadvantage!, but macros can be useful for code generation)

   Erm, no.
 - > stack semantics for reference types--automatically calling *IDisposable::Dispose()*

   This was IMO a serious mistake.  It already is difficult to avoid
   problems with accidental boxing, as outlined in the first bullet.
   Stack semantics makes it seriously difficult for any starting
   programmer to sort this out.  This was a design decision to placate
   C++ programmers, that's okay, but the using statement was a better
   solution.
 - > easier implementation of *Dispose()* via C++ destructor

   Not sure how it is easier.  The GC.SuppressFinalize() call is
   automatic, that's all.  It is *very* rare for anybody to write a
   finalizer, but you can't avoid the auto-generated code from making
   the call.  That's inefficient and a violation of the 'you don't pay
   for what you don't use' principle.  Add to this that writing the
   destructor also forces a default finalizer to be auto-generated.  One
   you'd never use and wouldn't want to be used if you forgot or omitted
   to use the destructor.

Well, that's all very subjective perhaps.  The death-knell will come with VS2010, it will ship without IntelliSense support for C++/CLI.