> The idea is that by supporting the largest number of features possible, they'll surely build something that everyone likes because it will tick everyone's box

> The idea is that by supporting the largest number of features possible, they'll surely build something that everyone likes because it will tick everyone's boxes. The idea that the C++ committee are unthinking people pleasers it patently false. C++ does have a lot of cruft, but mostly because it aims to: i) support new features ii) maintain pretty strong backward compatibility guarantees In general the new features are actually pretty well liked, but in conjunction with (ii) it creates a big language. There's a reasonably decent subset that can be carved out, but it's also clear why newcomers without legacy baggage (e.g. rust) are making inroads.