I think the c++ community needs to get past the idea that people learning it are coming at it from a "c with classes!" perspective. It's going to transition to

I think the c++ community needs to get past the idea that people learning it are coming at it from a "c with classes!" perspective. It's going to transition to "python with static types", "rust without a borrow checker", "java with manual memory management", etc. I don't think that as time progresses the newcomer pipeline is going to be largely represented by people coming from C. The curve described is what it's like to pick up any language after being proficient with another though -- nothing specific to c++. c++ is just larger and more sprawling with more footguns and other things to make you suffer. Find similarity, be comfortable enough to be productive, gain experience and realize mistakes, get frustrated, either walk away or accept the language and ecosystem as it is and learn how to work within it.