Speaking from my own very limited experience, I think C++ can be pretty nice if you basically write straight C but borrow from the C++ STL. Smart pointers (std::unique_ptr, std::shared_ptr, etc), collections (std::vector, std::unordered_map, std::set, std::stack, std::priority_queue), and stuff like std::tuple and std::optional really make C feel less clunky without getting too gross.