That would have required a decision, and if there's something committees are uniquely unqualified to make, it's decisions.

The fact that it's C++, where the prototypical user believes that they shouldn't pay for what they don't use just makes things worse. Everything being optional means there can be very few synergies in language or standard library design, because if feature A needs feature B to work, people who want A but not B will complain. C++ "chooses" either by omitting both A and B, or creating some low-level error-prone features and hoping users won't chop off too many fingers trying to build their own incompatible versions of A and B. An ill-designed misfit language is all but required by the dynamics of the situation.