C++ is not low level in the sense that C is low level, one of its primary goals is to support "zero overhead abstractions" meaning offering higher level languag

C++ is not low level in the sense that C is low level, one of its primary goals is to support "zero overhead abstractions" meaning offering higher level language features without compromising on performance as most high level languages do. And yes, there is a big difference between C++ 03 and C++17 and an even bigger difference from C++20 but C++ has done a good job of maintaining backwards compatibility so almost all C++98 code will still compile with a C++20 compiler. How does anyone keep up with the changes in technology over the last 20 years? At least with C++ much of your old knowledge remains relevant, more so than a Visual Basic programmer who is now using JavaScript with the latest UI framework flavor of the month.