"bugs will happen with your high level languages too" Sure, but the nature of the bugs is different. In C and C++, you have low-level bugs and high-level bugs

"bugs will happen with your high level languages too" Sure, but the nature of the bugs is different. In C and C++, you have low-level bugs and high-level bugs to deal with; in a high-level language, you almost never have to deal with low-level bugs. Pointers are an inherently low-level construct, which are necessary in low-level code but completely inappropriate in high-level code. "it's not totally unmanageable or unapproachable" It is, however, a waste of time and mental effort, and it leads to less reliable software. The majority of C and C++ programs are high level programs that neither require nor benefit from the low-level features of those languages; unfortunately, writing a non-trivial C/C++ program without using low-level features (like pointers) is impossible.