While you're technically correct, your ignoring the pragmatic truth: most developers are terrible and should never write code. Because of this reality, C/C++ and all its footguns are something to be avoided unless there is no other alternative (usually this happens when integrating with legacy software or in industries like gaming where the switching costs are extreme).

So you're saying that since we're encouraging people to flood the market with little to no skill, we should instead accommodate them with Baby's First Programming Language and then force all of the other developers to follow the same methodology?

This makes no sense. It just sounds like Go.

Not the OP but we should weed out all the incompetent folk ASAP rather than hide it to maintain delivery speed.

I completely agree.

terrible programmers ain't nothing new though and large corp in critical fields are aware of that and have (or had) structural mitigations (slow and heavy processes, regulations etc)

This is sort of true, but show me a (non-trivial) C++ program that doesn't resort to naked pointers or references at some point.

In the real world, smart pointers help a lot and are a great idea but they don't fully solve the problem in the same way that Rust or memory safe languages do.

Pointers kill people

“We kill people based on memory safety.” - Michael Hayden, probably

null pointers kill people

Dangling pointers kill people.

redditizing HN kills people