C's model is great for implementing complex, efficient data structures. Pointers are an amazing abstraction. But in many respects strings are the antithesis of a data structure, and unsurprisingly C falters hard. The problem is that most programmers don't build data structures; they build Rube Goldberg machines for munging strings, even when they're using low-level languages.

Data structures to most programmers are things you import into your Rube Goldberg machine. They don't understand that good programs are made of layers of meticulously crafted, bespoke data structures where the final product is effectively one giant data structure tailored for a particular task, with interfaces to match.

It follows that good C programs don't do very much strings munging even if all they do is process text. The text is systematically atomized from the very beginning. The same is true for good programs in any other language.