I think you're right there about the differences between C and C++ and the root of the anger towards it. C is completely alien to me - I wouldn't be able to competently write a decent program in it. But C++ is a different matter.
I have worked with people who write C++ in "fancy C" style too.
Being mostly a C programmer, my code in C++ was basically (as he coined it) fancy-C. Then he rewrote my code in "the C++ way," after which the code became completely opaque to me.
My initial mistake was that I expected C++ to be like (or similar to) C, a mistake I believe many of us make. C++ is a lot more complex in scope (not necessarily in a bad way, either) and requires proper learning.
I came to the realisation that C and C++ are not even similar languages. Yes, you can write proper C code in C++ (with a bit of added strictness), but that's not how one should write C++. Also, I think that lot of the "anger" towards C++ is that the the names makes you think it's like C, but then you start learning the language and realise that in fact it is nothing like C on the outside, just on the inside.
Anyway, I'm not hating on C, I actually haven't taken on the quest to learn it properly, and I still rely mostly on C.