If that doesn't show the power of a language, I don't know what can. I don't really think the community is toxic or unwelcoming, more like people are too used to ctrl+c ctrl+v their way out of problems. Nothing against that, I'm the same way, but it really is a matter of taking your time with the language. I've honestly learned to applaud most rust fanatics because of this, at least they are passionate about learning athe language inside/out.
I think it's pretty easy to forget the foothold these languages have, and their flexibility. We all have seen the perseverance of COBOL.
I hope Rust does well.
Being old isn't a superpower. That said, I don't see C++ replaced in certain areas for loooong time.
Of course not many people ever got properly introduced to C++.
My experience was negative overall and traumatic to some extent and I wouldn't rule out that some who were first exposed to the language in college or even HS share the same aversion and feel scarred and haunted forever by that Blue Ghost.
Some probably only saw it during their format education, and it's most likely been taught like C with classes and/or they had to use for stupid things.
There are also many forms of C++, there is your "old and regular" C++, game dev C++, there is modern C++, then there is "I only know C, but sure I can write C++" C++.
Pulling dependencies is not as simple as `npm i boost`.
Communities are small, segmented and not welcoming to newbies.
Absolute madness with build tools. I've never worked with CMake myself until last year, and I haven't so frustrated.
As for how many applications using C++ that's not really an argument — C++ was literally the only choice for many of them at that time.