Well yes, I'm what one would call a 'C++ guy' myself. Don't pass around, pass around const std::string&. What I see left and right is people saying 'you'll never pass a const std::string& any more!'. The way I see it: you'd pass a string_view in the cases where, in the past, you would have had to copy a part out of a string (which is rare, except in parsers), or when dealing with char* API's; what's better about passing a string_view than passing const string& ?

Nothing. But I would disagree that having to copy a part of a string, or having to pass part of a char buffer that is not a string, is all that rare, even outside of parsers.