I don't think it's because the Boost guys thought it "too hard". Having seen/used some of those libraries, I'm 100% sure they can handle the alleged "hardness".

I don't think it's because the Boost guys thought it "too hard". Having seen/used some of those libraries, I'm 100% sure they can handle the alleged "hardness". C++ in general values performance over safety almost everywhere (just like C). That's probably why they made certain parts exception-unsafe.