For what it's worth, I find it remarkable what you actually can do with C with just a few libraries. For instance it's entirely possible to write a simple video game in pure C with a few well-chosen libraries for things like audio and asset loading.
There's just so much prior art out there.
Naturally the libraries for audio and asset loading aren't pure C, unless I missed some chapters on ISO C document.
> As much as I hate some aspects of C, I also love it. I love it because the committees are so slow and conservative
You might find this an interesting perspective:
You can call it a moot point since the amount of what you can do in pure C today is very limited - you have to use at least a few libraries to do anything remotely useful even on very light systems, but in today's fast developing tech world it's one of these things that really stand out.