One of the things that has made C++ more tolerable over time is that it became easy to seamlessly replace most of it with an implementation that works the way y

One of the things that has made C++ more tolerable over time is that it became easy to seamlessly replace most of it with an implementation that works the way you think it should and with most behaviors being fully defined -- the core data types, standard library, etc. Particularly with C++20 and later, alternative foundations feel quite native and expressive. Most new C++ projects I see lean into this quite heavily. The ease with which you can build a systems-level DSL for your application is a strength of C++.