I was a pretty successful BASIC programmer, starting on DEC PDP-11 RSTS/E BASIC. Line number BASIC was good enough for simple applications, but quickly turned into spaghetti code.

Later, the VAX had BASIC with functions and subroutines and dropped the line numbers and this version of BASIC was significantly better. It was procedural, but you could organize your code into modules, keeping it readable and maintainable.

Eventually the non line number BASIC spread to the PC. Microsoft Professional Development System, then Visual BASIC.