There is substantially more sophistication to his points than you give him credit for. If someone who is an expert in something - and he is - says something about their area of expertise that you think is obvious and simple, consider perhaps that it's your level of understanding that is lacking, not theirs.
Academics have been whining about C and C++ since at least the 1980s. But if you ask any three academics what programming languages they like, you'll get three different answers, depending on what department and program they are in.
I'm sure Dr. Regehr is a smart guy, but I don't consider academics good sources of advice on software engineering, for the same reason I don't get sex tips from Catholic priests. Also, John Regehr's CV relates more to static analysis than software engineering anyway.