I had a similar reaction returning to C++ a few years ago, and getting exposed to stuff like lambdas, smart pointers, and template metaprogramming painpoints being fixed. One especially nice thing about C++ is GCC, which lets you use relatively recent features even on obscure HW/OS architectures that other, trendier languages ignore. For example, you can use modern C++ features, at least upto C++17, on OpenBSD.