It’s a bit like a well-kept Victorian home. The amount of work, money, and dealing with discomfort that goes into maintaining one isn’t something I really want to experience for myself. But the amount of skill and craftsmanship that it takes to preserve one is still impressive, and I have to appreciate the respect for history and the care that goes into balancing it with modern concerns.
And talking to people who do live the life is always a great learning experience.
If there's something that C++ actually lacks, that's the elegance, grace and beauty. The rest, it's all already there or will be there shortly :)
I had the same misunderstanding before I get to know CS. that was 30 years ago.
I'm also glad I do not write C++ on the daily anymore: luckily my software does not need that kind of performance characteristics.
You can write pretty fast and reasonable code nowadays.
Either directly on top of a runtime/compiler written in C++, or as indirect dependency on a C++ compiler toolchain.
I used to think that was a personal limitation, until I saw an interview with Bjarne explaining that he used to understand all of it but at this point it’s too big, no one can anymore.