Once you have the concept of user-defined aggregate types that are meaningful to the semantics of your VM (which C and C++ definitely do), then you're pretty far away from the machine. The difference between the C VM and the .NET VM is not nearly as wide as the difference between the native instruction set and the C VM.
That's the point: C++ allows to go pretty high on the abstract side, but it gives all the tools to map how the high level abstractions are implemented on the low level side.
I think that while it is true, and I am a big C++ fan, given it was my path after Turbo Pascal, exactly because I am a fan of Wirth and Xerox PARC languages I also know there are better paths.
An example is the work being done in .NET Native, C#'s roadmap up to 8 picking up Midori's work, D, Swift, Java 10 and so on.
C++ got this position, because the others stop caring about those issues.
Now that they finally started caring about them, lets see what the future holds.
Oh like I said I have a love-hate thing with C++. Nowadays I mostly do C# and python, with a bit of Java. I only rely on C++ when I have to do brutal per pixel computer vision algorithms.
In most cases you can rely on libraries to do the heavy duty (and then I stick to python or C#) but sometime you have to take the big C++ hammer and try to not hit your fingers with it.
