[pjmlp]

I would say until C++98, C++ used to be more opinated, one of the reasons many of us went with C++ when given the choice, wasn't OOP features, rather the security improvements over bare bones C, with compiler provider frameworks.

Then eventually C++ got invaded by C expatriates, and writing C with C++ compiler idioms increased instead of going away.

It is like giving Typescript to groups of folks that insist on using any all over the place.

[pdimitar]

Actually I have good-ish memories of the early `boost` (we're talking 2003 - 2006) and some of the `std::` libraries in C++. They got the job done fine and were not in the way. So yeah, agreed.