When compared to assembler, I’d agree. I grew up with 6502 and 68k. To me, back in the early 90s, C (Mac MPW C to be precise) was an abstract assembler. The co

When compared to assembler, I’d agree. I grew up with 6502 and 68k. To me, back in the early 90s, C (Mac MPW C to be precise) was an abstract assembler. The code-gen was perfectly readable. Compared to the likes of Python, it most certainly is low-level. These types of language allow developers to rapidly get something going and not just because of the libraries. I’d find it very hard to justify a business position where C has any other role than binding and breaking out into something more abstract. Be that Go or C++, for an example. An argument I used to hear was “performance” from C. I’m not entirely convinced as in a higher language your algorithm may well be better as you can deal with the abstraction. But… people make money coding C.