That C++ doesn't impose, but does permit these runtime features is what allows it to adapt to such a wide variety of constrained environments. Baking those feat

That C++ doesn't impose, but does permit these runtime features is what allows it to adapt to such a wide variety of constrained environments. Baking those features into the language can certainly be much cleaner, at the cost of versatility. We need system level languages and C++ currently stands alone in its combination of powerful abstractions, low level control, and ecosystem size, though it certainly has competition in these aspects individually. I don't doubt that a language could be everything C++ is and much cleaner too, but that is a big challenge that relatively few language designers want to take on.