I think you're misinterpreting that and/or quoting it out of context.

He was going on about how many different languages were in use. The "horrible thing" he's referring to is the variety, not that they aren't all C++.

The "real work" he's referring to is performance intensive work and I think his phrasing makes it clear that he like C++ but he gives a lot of credit to modern languages for their ease of use as well.