Templates can be abused, but there's real value to simple ones such as container classes and even shared_ptr and unique_ptr. The subset of C++ I personally use is pretty small, but I hope I never go back to manual memory babysitting.

Templates are the main thing in C++ that you can easily use everywhere with zero costs in compatibility.

And they certainly beat C's "equivalent", macros.

You can use macros with C++

That's what wxWidgets did since forever, and to the dismay of C++ purists, I find their code easier to read than most templates.

Not to mention it compiles much faster.

There is hardly any C feature that beats C++ one's. :)