But even if the hardware is designed for C instead of the other way around, getting away from C is going to be hard, indeed, if the hardware is designed for C,

But even if the hardware is designed for C instead of the other way around, getting away from C is going to be hard, indeed, if the hardware is designed for C, it kind of makes C the lowest level you can count on. I'm just saying that the authors group together a variety of claims under "C is not low level" but while the claims themselves might be reasonable, they don't support the base point.