Not to mention C++ templates are hideously slow to compile (if used indiscriminately, as they often are). Although C++ isn't the only language that struggles with build times. At any rate, it does seem possible to do generics without slow compile times (C# seems to do fine, for instance), so C++ might be giving generics a bad name on that count as well.

Fast builds would be high on the list of my own "dream language" features. Long developer iteration times are poison.