Ok, maybe it isn't a question of C and native, but access to low level semantics, memory layout and specialized instructions. The majority of programs and programmers are better served by going with a higher level, easier to parallelize semantics than dropping down to architecture specific features. I am thinking Grand Central Dispatch vs assembler.

I would argue that the low level work you are doing should be done in a macro or compiler.

http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/~hanrahan/talks/dsl/dsl1.pd...

http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/~hanrahan/talks/dsl/dsl2.pd...

Pat Hanrahan makes a compelling argument for using special purpose DSLs to construct efficient performant code that takes advantage of heterogeneous hardware.

See the Design of Terra, http://terralang.org/snapl-devito.pdf