C++11 is the superior option because it is easier to write correct code with it, plain and simple. And we aren't talking about orders of magnitude difference in throughput or latency, we're talking about a slight increase in CPU idle.

And layers upon layers of object oriented crap is also a problem in C (I've seen it). At the end of the day I've just been burned more by the complexities of building large things in C (particularly when people do reference counting in C) than I have been by the complexity of c++ in general.