That's like asking a marathon runner why he doesn't just hop in a car. I use many languages. I use C# to knock out a GUI. VBA for a bit of spreadsheet work.

That's like asking a marathon runner why he doesn't just hop in a car. I use many languages. I use C# to knock out a GUI. VBA for a bit of spreadsheet work. Q/KDB+ for database/functional work. R for stats. All of these are far more productive than C++. If you want fancy abstractions, other languages have them by the bucketload. I don't use C++ to be productive, and I don't expect to be. I use it to get close to the metal and have full control. Everything you code will take 4-5 times longer to write. And longer to compile. You will be careful because you have to be careful, and that's a good thing because with that care comes quality.