Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd bet Metal is almost entirely C++ with a little Obj-C sprinkled on top for the API. And of course C++ is still a better systems language than Swift.

My point was that Swift is better than pure Obj-C for systems programming. Admittedly, that might be a poor comparison, since Obj-C was specifically built to be used alongside C as the systems language.

But yes, I think the ultimate goal is that Swift will be better than C/C++ for systems programming too. It still has a ways to go, and there are a lot of libraries that will need to be written, but I do think it's possible.