[seanmcdirmid]

You can implement a self expanding vector in C though, so I’m not really sure what you are gaining/losing by using C++, I guess it’s just a matter of standard library, but you can create build rules that restrict what you can depend on in low level code.

[zeroCalories]

The point is that having all these complex libraries and abstractions moves you away from understanding what your code is actually doing, which is not ideal in some domains.