[em-bee]

I prefer higher level code and tooling wherever possible

exactly this.

go actually strikes a balance of being one of the few high level languages that can compile directly to binary. there are not many languages that can do that. common lisp, erlang, o'caml and maybe red are a few others that i am aware of. there are probably a few more that are less popular that i don't know.

for me high level implies at least automatic memory management and high level data types.