I completely agree that complexity of edge cases, undefined behavior, and high combinatoric complexity between language features is a FAR more damaging kind of

I completely agree that complexity of edge cases, undefined behavior, and high combinatoric complexity between language features is a FAR more damaging kind of complexity (due to its nonlinear cost) than simple language feature count. However, I disagree that simple language feature count has no cost: Assuming “linear cognitive complexity”, even such linear features do have a cost: Sure, you may not need to learn what a “const fn” is until you need it if you’re working only on your own project, but if you’re working on a team and/or with external libraries, the chances that you can get by without knowing the ENTIRE LANGUAGE diminish rather quickly with project size. This is why even the least costly kinds of language complexity can still end up costing a lot in a large project containing a lot of code, dependencies, and developers.