It is a problem of gatekeeping or just that std::format is actually rather complicated under the hood. For all their flaws, iostreams have the advantage of bei

It is a problem of gatekeeping or just that std::format is actually rather complicated under the hood. For all their flaws, iostreams have the advantage of being simple to implement. They are just overloads of the << and >> operators. std::format and likes require a lot of meta-programming magic to work correctly. It means longer compile times, less tolerance for broken compilers, and possibly weird edge cases, which are important considerations when designing a standard that will be used everywhere. And when it's there, it is there for good, so I understand the committee for being careful. From ANSI C++ to C++20, a lot of work has been done making meta-programming more sensible, and computers became more powerful, which makes it ready for something like std::format.