I'd argue that the focus on performance is what drove the developers to C++ in the first place. So they will know both the algorithms and the low-level details.

I'd argue that the focus on performance is what drove the developers to C++ in the first place. So they will know both the algorithms and the low-level details. If performance is on your mind constantly, why wouldn't you choose the one with the least restrictions on what you can achieve? It's not like those people would find joy in being locked into the JVM instruction-set.