C++ has been piling more new problems on top of C than it inherited from C in the first place (and C++ is now caught in a cycle of trying to fix problems it introduced a couple of versions ago).
Creating a better C successor than C++ is really not a high bar.
You're not really going to make something better than C. If you try, it will most likely become C++ anyway. But do try anyway. Rust and Zig are evidence that we still dream that we can do better than C and C++.
Anyway I'm gonna go learn C++.