agreed, much of the bickering is on ABIs and FFI stuff which you could argue is hard due to ABI differences it supports. this is not a C problem, but a complexity C exposes. C does do that a lot, but thats also a strength. There are really no sound alternatives to C for low level system programming (OS core functionality, or embedded stuff). there's C++ ofcourse but regarding the complaints it suffers the same. Rust doesnt solve anything there, its impossible still to actually build a modern OS in rust for example. (maybe if most your core is wrapped in unsafe and you run on only a single core device...).

If C is such a problem id like to see some alternatives which offer what C does but less painfully.

C is only useful in certain domains, but within the domains where C is really good, theres no others. (unless you want to go assembly mode... good luck :) can be fun)..

anyhting that is less painful, exposes less complexity and is usually therefore less generally applicable.

A lot of the pains of C are lack of understanding how to use it because using it requires deep knowledge of it, and the target platform.

that being said, i do get userland applications and C dont really mix anymore. that is a fair point imho.