For the complexity it adds not having GC is a detriment of C++. The language makes reasoning about allocation, object ownership, etc, much harder. It does this

For the complexity it adds not having GC is a detriment of C++. The language makes reasoning about allocation, object ownership, etc, much harder. It does this in the course of providing features intended to help you structure and manage larger pieces of code, and thus accidentally works to defeat that purpose. I don't think Linus ever intended to declare GC as evil or wrong. He was calling it out as a very poor choice that people persist in making for certain domains.