> It feels like I wasted a lot of my life achieving something so ridiculously basic that it’s almost laughable
Which makes me think I should never get involved with an ISO committee, not something I want done fast at least
The people on the C standards committee are gold bricks that say things like we won't add anything to the standard that isn't implemented in two or more compilers.
The compiler writers program in C++. And say things like if you want that feature that's a good reason to use C++ and stop using C. But if the standards committee adds it of course we will.
Also embed is exactly the feature that end uses would find very useful and compiler writers would not care about at all.