While C++ is a whole lot of different language with operator overloading amd everything, I don't think the pass-by-reference in the C++'s way with &'s before the variable/parameter identifiers is much different from how Java handles the objects behind the curtains.

In Java with no explicit pointers available to its users, the way objects are handled are explained better with the pass-by-reference concept than (whooosh!, magic in) pointers (and out) passed-by-value reality. Pointer is a foreign concept to Java, so it really makes more sense to its users that object variables start referring to other objects when they are reassigned, instead of the old object being changed in-place. Things get funky with equality comparison via == operator, but still, it is better than pointers.

I also wonder, does C++ really pass-by-reference when parameters have &'s behind their identifier declarations, or does it internally pass a reference by value and dereference it every time it is used within that scope? Are 4/8 bytes allocated for the reference variable or not?