I think maybe you're paying too much heed to what you see in concentrated and very self selecting online communities. A lot of professional C++ programmers are

I think maybe you're paying too much heed to what you see in concentrated and very self selecting online communities. A lot of professional C++ programmers are more focussed on particular industries, and the domain problems to solve and less so on the language or specific tools. It just so happens that C++ has been the only game in town in a lot of industries until quite recently. At work we've been looking into trying out Rust in some modules where it would make sense. There has been zero objection based on it being Rust, from a team of senior C++ devs. Quite the opposite, most are keen to try it out. But those people don't spent their time on language message boards. Sure, you will find the type of person that you describe. They definitely exist. But it's not the typical case of senior C++ developer, in my experience. Most of us are domain experts in something (automotive, security, medical devices, games, OSes, networking, etc...) and the language comes secondary. If we can better solve our primary goals with a different language then we'd be fools not to have an open mind.