Why is it you think most major programs are built using C++? Most OS's, most drivers, most browsers, most games, most major applications, most compilers, most servers etc etc.

C++ completely dominates games, browsers (and a few things you don't list, such as competitive programming). It is certainly not marginal in the other areas you list either, but were do you get the weird idea that most operating systems and drivers are written in C++ (let alone most compilers, servers or "major applications")? Unix has completely won the OS market (what percentage of OS installs these days are unix derivatives? 99%+?) and I can't think of a single one that is predominantly or at all written in C++. Apart from lacking a browser, I'd be surprised if you couldn't run a fully functional linux desktop after deleting every single C++ application and library on your system.

Most servers, definitely not.

Consider that large chunks of Google, Twitter, Amazon, Alibaba etc run on Java.

Wait, are we still comparing C++ with Java here?

Yes? If you write zero or low allocation code in Java you pay a price for working against the language and you also lack several tools for writing fast code that C++ provides you with (as well as a bunch of useful abstractions), but your development experience will obviously be much better on a number of other dimensions.