Less lines of code does not equal more efficient code. A single C statement has almost a 1:1 correlation between underlying assembly when compiled, where as a single statement in a high level language usually consists of several assembly instructions.

I think the overarching point is experience with the language. I for one have seen and written incredibly long and convoluted programs in a high level language which was largely due to a weak understanding of the massive API's that come with it. And it would have taken roughly the same amount of time to read and understand what the API functions do and how to use them as it would in C.

In the end, it's all relative and it's totally dependent on experience with the language and what you need for your application.