i think it may be that. When I see some code like this in C++:

    y = f(x);

I'm extremely terrified to what is going on. It is like looking into an abyss. Is this code calling a function named "f" with argument "x"? If so, there may be several different functions "f" depending on the type of "x". Maybe none of them has the same type as "x", but there are some conversions that may happen and lead to that. Or maybe "f" is not even a function, but it is an object that has overloaded the parenthesis operator? And then, what happens to the result, whatever type it has. Is it calling a copy constructor (over some inheritance chain)? Is the assignment operator overloaded? If running this line results in an execution error, I'm totally lost as to where to find the problem.

On the contrary, in C, the same line says explicitly what code is executed, without need for further context. If the code compiles, there is a single visible definition of a function named "f" and this is the code that is called.

I read much more code than I write. But code with lots of abstractions, like C++ with objects or templates, however elegant was to write, is a disgusting chore to analyze, understand and eventually fix (because the abstractions always fail). On the other hand, analyzing C code is pretty straightforward, even if it was a bit more verbose to write.