C++ is absolutely a systems language and widely used for that purpose. Indeed, I would argue it is the primary use case for which it is well-suited these days.

C++ is absolutely a systems language and widely used for that purpose. Indeed, I would argue it is the primary use case for which it is well-suited these days. In 2019 there are few if any reasonable alternatives for writing software like high-performance database engines, so C++ essentially wins by default.