You can write bad code in any language. (We used to say "you can write FORTRAN code in any language", back when.) C code compiled with a C++ compiler is C, and bad. With the C compiler, you had no choice. You do not get that excuse when you have a C++ compiler.

Avoiding unnecessary complexity is everybody's responsibility. Dumping every last bit of unavoidable complexity onto the programmer where it has been long demonstrated that tooling can take care of much of it is simply irresponsible, and inexcusable.

I do not excuse it.