Safer, I'd say, but it also introduced its own issues. Its type system and - maybe more importantly - its ecosystem around things like unit testing and static analysis at the time was a few leaps ahead of C++, making it a favorite for enterprise systems and codebases where getting 5 SIG stars is a badge of honor and/or requirement.

Java is easier than C++ as well, harder to mess things up. That said, Go feels easier again than Java because it got rid of a lot of cruft.