This creates a feedback cycle where people are using C++ to get high performance, and that drives the language evolution towards confusing "features" (and idios

This creates a feedback cycle where people are using C++ to get high performance, and that drives the language evolution towards confusing "features" (and idiosyncrasies) that are done in the name of making it possible to generate more highly optimized code. You can replace C++ with <insert language here> and you can replace "language" with entire programming stacks. Large numbers of programming software toolsmiths have been laboring towards the wrong goals for the past few decades. We programmers are like old school computer hardware manufacturers hell-bent on delivering the highest spec numbers at the highest margins, while consumers were beset with poor quality, poor reliability, and experience degrading bloatware. We programmers are particularly prone to inflicting ourselves with experience degrading bloatware, while ignoring our own particular human interface design needs. We need to stop emphasizing "sexy" things like raw performance and mathematically provable semantic guarantees and start looking at how we impact our experience while reading and debugging code. We need to start calling out toolsmiths who give us "power" at the cost of long startup penalties, and unresponsive, unwieldy software tools.